Peoples Democratic Party Saturday said it had “verifiable evidence” of All Progressive Congress’ involvement in insurgency in the country.
This followed a challenge by APC to the ruling party to prove its allegation that the opposition party was linked to the terrorist activities in the northern parts of the country.
In a statement at the weekend by the PDP national publicity secretary, Mr. Olisa Metuh, the party said, “When we accused the APC of being behind insurgency, we did not speak in vain and when we summarised the manifesto of the party as a product of Janjaweed ideology, we have verifiable reasons.”
PDP alleged that the utterances and body language of some APC leaders had given it away as the face behind the mask of insurgency in parts of the country..
But APC dismissed the claims by PDP as evasive, saying they are a mere confirmation that the ruling party’s maladministration is behind the unfortunate happenings in the country. APC said by harping on the alleged comments of its members PDP was only demonstrating its lack of sustainable proof for its allegations.
The statement by PDP said it was not a coincidence that after General Muhammadu Buhari had beckoned on his supporters to go on lynching spree should he lose the 2011 presidential election, an unprecedented violence broke out, which claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent Nigerians.
It noted that the Sheikh Ahmed Lemu panel, which investigated the post-election violence in 2011, had established the culpability of Buhari, who was the presidential candidate of the now defunct Congress for Progressive Change in the 2011 general election. CPC was one of the three major parties that merged to form APC.
PDP alleged in its statement, “Besides, the allegory of the bloody monkey and baboon in respect of the 2015 election, which is still way ahead, by the same General, is still very fresh in the minds of Nigerians.
“The serial threats of violence should President Jonathan contest in 2015, including the most recent prophecy of violent deaths and destructions in 2015 by Nasiru El Rufai, are not slips from elements at the periphery, but snips from characters who know more than ordinary Nigerians the reasons behind the mindless carnage in the country.
“And when the APC boasted earlier in 2013, even before it could secure its name from counter claims, that insurgency would end within 100 days of its leadership of the nation, Nigerians recalled immediately that the chief priest who dines with the deity knows the right libation to appease the gods. Insurgency is APC and APC is insurgency.
“We recall also that the APC attempted to use the November 2013 Anambra governorship election to test run its agenda by posting fake opinion poll, making inflammatory statements concerning the election, and imported armed thugs in botched bid to unleash mayhem in the election it came a distant third. Vigilant security agencies nipped their plans in the bud.”
It accused APC of resorting to deceit, lies and insurgency as tools of politics. The ruling party said APC was pirating the PDP government’s counter insurgency measures that had been in quiet operation.
PDP similarly accused the opposition party of gender insensitivity, with its attacks on the female members of the Federal Executive Council and others in sensitive positions, alleging that this is a direct fallout of APC’s Janjaweed ideology.
But APC said in a statement by its interim national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that PDP had failed to provide any sustainable evidence of the opposition party’s links with insurgency, saying the reference to comments by APC members is flying in the face of common sense.
It alleged that PDP was merely raising allegations to try to divert attention from the raging tensions over the allegedly missing $20 billion of public funds and the Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment scandal.
APC stated, “If General Muhammed Buhari and Mallam Nasiru El-Rufai’s statements quoted above are PDP’s evidence of the APC’s involvement in the Boko Haram insurgency, any wonder then that the situation is getting worse by the day. Metuh has only succeeded in confirming our position that it is the incompetence, corruption and greed of this administration that has led the country to this sorry pass.
“By the way, we have moved on from this silly and unproductive debate. What Nigerians want to know now is what has happened to the missing $20 billion. Nigerians also want to know who collected N1, 000 from over 700,000 innocent job seekers, as we have irrefutable proof that the money was not paid into any government coffer.
“Olisa Metuh and the PDP, Nigerians are waiting for your answers.”
It would be recalled that the 23-member Lemu committee on the post-election violence, which was set up by Jonathan on May 11, 2011, had while submitting its report on November 9, 2011 said, “Provocative utterances by many individuals and the widespread charge by prominent politicians, including the CPC presidential candidate, to the electorate ‘to guard their votes’ appeared to have been misconstrued by many voters to include recourse to violence, which they did.
“However, a long interactive session was held between the CPC presidential candidate and a five-member delegation of the panel, led by the chairman, in the office of the CPC presidential candidate in Kaduna on September 14, 2011. It was discovered that the he himself was a victim of the violence and of the destruction of his property, the photographs of which were given to the said delegation.”
On the cause of the crisis, panel said, “The first and probably most important cause is the failure on the part of the previous successive regimes since the military handover of power in 1999 to implement the recommendations of various committees, commissions and panels that had taken place in our nation. That failure facilitated the wide spread sense of impunity in the culprits and perpetrators of crimes and violence in the Nigerian society.”
It said, “The second major cause of the recent electoral violence was the existing widespread desire for change as a result of frustration and disappointment of many members of the general public regarding the inability of the successive past regimes to solve the problems of electricity power failure nationwide, deplorable state of Federal Government roads throughout the nation, bribery and corruption, which have virtually been legitimised in all affairs of our nation.”
