The All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged the main opposition People Democratic Party (PDP) to campaign on issues affecting Nigerians and policies and not the matter of killings.
In a statement signed yesterday in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the APC accused the PDP of deliberate falsehood and “attempting to distort facts on the security record of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
“The PDP national chairman, Uche Secondus, in a recent television interview declared that under the APC administration, more Nigerians have been killed than during the Civil War that ended in 1970. Sadly, this kind of blatant falsehood has become the favourite pastime of the PDP.
“If we are to join the PDP in their mindless game of playing politics with the state of insecurity, we would be pitching the number of casualty during the civil war with what Nigerians witnessed under the PDP. As a Party, we would rather engage the PDP on the number of completed projects and pro-people policies we have embarked on as a government for the benefit of the country.
“The APC understands governance to be serious business and is focused on finding lasting solution to the state of insecurity. Notably, significant successes have been recorded in the last three and half years.
“For instance, the Niger Delta violence that was prevalent under the PDP government has not only been tackled, the APC government has now embarked on the environmental cleanup of Ogoniland to restore the ecosystem of the area, which was of no concern to PDP during its 16 years of ignoble rule.
“Besides guerrilla attacks and hitting at soft targets, Boko Haram has been seriously degraded such that it lacks any capacity to hold territory. Most Nigerians, especially, the people of the North East are still smarting from the monstrosity of Boko Haram attacks on the innocent citizens and control of large swathes of the country’s territory under PDP”.
The APC cataloged atrocious acts under the PDP administration including the military attacks on communities such as Odi and Zaki Biam, deaths from riots over Sharia law in different parts of the North and internecine killings in Plateau State.
“The Niger Delta militancy that emerged under PDP made the region a hotbed of expatriate kidnappings, killings, illegal bunkering and other criminal activities. With the emergence of Boko Haram under the PDP administration, the sect was allowed to gain ground and control 14 local governments, turning states like Borno, Adamawa, Yobe and the Federal Capital Territory into killing fields.”
