President Muhammadu Buhari remains in the United Kingdom on ‘a private visit’ but Nigeria still continues on his absence despite the insecurity situation that an average Nigerian faces in the country.

Before the president travelled there has been an increase in the issue of insecurity, especially in the Northern part of the country where armed bandits and Fulani herdsmen attack on lives and properties has become a daily battle, the pendulum filled to the brim last week when a British aid worker, Faye Mooney, and a Nigerian were killed by gunmen at Kajuru Castle in Kaduna state.

 

In reaction to the incident, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, addressed a press conference in Abuja yesterday and condemned the killing, while he decried the rate of insecurity in the land, saying Nigerians had never lived in such great fear and trembling for their lives.

But, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has faulted the statements made by Secondus on insecurity in the country.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Lanre Issa-Onilu, described the remarks by Secondus as an attempt by the main opposition party to seek relevance following its loss at the poll.

Issa-Onilu made this known yesterday while appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today, he was quoted saying: “It is just an attempt by the PDP to find a way back to the front page of newspapers and to be relevant in the news.”

The APC spokesman added, “It would have been unnecessary for any response at all to come from us as the ruling party but I suspect that the national chairman of the PDP may have stumbled on one of the statements they wrote pre-election.

“Because it sounded more like some of those campaign materials that were not used or that have been used repeatedly; for which the voters passed a verdict in the last election.”

Also, Issa-Onilu insisted that the ruling party would not join issues with the opposition, noting that there was nothing relevant to argue about.

According to him, Nigerians are aware of who caused the problems and who is trying to find a solution to them.

The APC spokesman added that rather than engaging in such an argument, the ruling party was busy with how to ensure that the safety of lives and properties of the people was guaranteed.

He said, “At this stage, what we are focused on is how to ensure that all these problems that were created for over 16 years of PDP maladministration; that they no longer exist and we have made tremendous progress.”

“In this country, we all know what this country was before the APC came; we all know the tremendous steps we have taken and the progress we have made so far.

“We are focused on that and we are focused on governance; we are focused on policy and implementation of our policies,” Issa-Onilu stated.

On his part, Mr Phrank Shuaib, an aide to the PDP presidential candidate and former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, disagreed with the claims that his party was desperate to be relevant.

Shuaib, who was also a guest same programme wondered how anyone with a conscience would align with the position of the APC spokesman.

He alleged that the number of deaths recorded under the present administration was much and all the Federal Government has done was to keep making promises.

“It is ludicrous to listen to this kind of vituperation coming from a ruling party because the lives of our people are very important to us,” Shuaib said.

He added, “It is unfortunate that this government is playing politics with the lives of our people. Security has been a challenge in this country under this present administration.”

Image Credit: Channels TV, Google Image Search

Feel free to leave your comment on the story