Insecurity: PDP tells Lai to apologize to Nigerians

By Tunde Opalana Abuja 

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had charged the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed to apologize to Nigerians for misleading  them that the country is safer, bearing in mind the daily security breaches across the land.

The minister was also accused of heating up the polity with unfounded security breach allegations against the PDP and its Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

Faulting the minister’s assurances on Monday, that the nation was safe for the presidential inauguration, the party said Mohammed has further exposed the fact that he, acting for the federal government only conjured claims to create the impression that the PDP and Atiku Abubakar had set security breaches against the presidential inauguration. 

PDP described as lamentable that the Buhari administration in its desperation to secure acceptance from Nigerians and confer legitimacy on the government, would manufacture and purvey fake news to the public.

The party in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said it is appalling only for Nigerians to learn from the same minister that his earlier claims against the PDP and its presidential candidate were not based on any concrete evidence.

The party stressed that the minister’s claims that he relied on certain alarms fell flat as no agency in the country had ever accused the PDP as a political party, or its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar of “doing everything possible to sabotage the Buhari administration, generally overheat the polity and make Nigeria seemingly ungovernable” as claimed by Lai Mohammed.

“It is now clear that the whole essence of the misleading allegation was to heat up the system, attempt to cow democratic voices, divert public discourse from the rigging of the presidential election and scare the PDP and our presidential candidate from pursuing our stolen presidential mandate at the court.

“We also have fears that Alhaji Lai Mohammed could have made those wild claims in a bid to pave the way to frame, harass, arrest and detain some opposition figures on trump-up charges.

“Such antics have failed as Nigerians have seen through them and are resolute, behind Atiku Abubakar, in the determination to retrieve his mandate in the court, and no form of blackmail and intimidation will detract from that resolve.

“By his fabricated claims, the minister only succeeded in further de-marketing our dear nation in the international arena, causing more damage to investors’ confidence in our system and exposing this administration as the purveyor of fake news,” said Ologbondiyan.

The PDP therefore, asked Mohammed to apologize to the nation and desist from such acts of incitement.