Foreign mercenaries: APC leaders ignited terrorism, PDP tells el-Rufai – Nexus News
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said, yesterday, that the display of frustration and threats by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, to hire foreign mercenaries to face terrorists in Nigeria is another confirmation and admission of the failure of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration.
The party, however emphasized that el-Rufai could not separate himself from those responsible for igniting and financing insecurity, which resulted to acts of terrorism destroying the nation today.
In a press release by its national publicity secretary, Debo Ologunagba, the PDP stated that “the alarming insecurity situation in Nigeria that has led to the killing and maiming of tens of thousands of our compatriots since the APC took office in 2015 is the result of the actions and comments by APC leaders and government officials who encouraged acts of terrorism in the name of politics.”
Nigerians can recall how ahead of the 2019 general elections, el-Rufai threatened that “those that are calling for anyone to come and intervene in Nigeria, we are waiting for the persons that will come and intervene, they will go back in body bags.”
The statement continued: “Nigerians have not forgotten how in November 2020, the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency, through its spokesperson, Shehu Garba, rationalized the beheading of 43 rice farmers in Borno State by terrorists and blamed the farmers for not obtaining clearance before going to their farms.
“Governor el-Rufai should know that he and other APC leaders cannot under any circumstance distance themselves from blame in the worsening insecurity, pain, horror, social dislocation of families and life-discounting experiences being encountered daily by Nigerians under the APC.”
MEANWHILE, the Presidency has pointed out some mistakes reportedly committed by the PDP government and concluded that Nigerians cannot trust them again with the affairs of the country. The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, disclosed this in reaction to the press release issued by the PDP Governors’ Forum.
Read Also: We’ll Hire Foreign Mercenaries If FG Fails To Tackle Terrorism, says El-Rufai
The PDP governors had in a statement issued on March 23 said that life was better under the PDP administrations from 1999 to 2015 than it is presently under the APC.
However, in a delayed reaction, the Presidency, in a press release yesterday titled: ‘Issues from the PDP fantasy communique from Umuahia,’ stated that the governors of the former leading party were trying to cover up “the serial and criminal failures of the PDP’s long and damaging period in office.”
The statement read in part, “The rejected PDP fantasy communiqué is a work of fiction by those who truly believe black is white and one plus one equals three. We cannot forget under PDP, the nation had an army full of phantom soldiers whose pay went to PDP politicians’ pockets while our under-resourced real soldiers died in the fight against terrorist insurgents and our international allies refused to supply Nigeria kit and military aid.
“We cannot ignore how PDP politicians sought – and continue to seek – to inflame ethnic and religious tensions by refusing to even proffer a solution to the herder-farmer clashes which became most prevalent under their misrule.”
The Presidency further blamed the PDP of intentionally aiding and exploiting the black market in currency exchange to convert ill-gotten gains to foreign currency and sabotage the national currency.
It also added that under the present administration, the national currency was more fixed; the country had also achieved self-sufficiency in rice and fertilizer production as “greedy politicians and businessmen” have been banned from hiding their money overseas, but creating an economy here in Nigeria for all.
