The Peoples Democratic Party has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to halt the “feasting with the All Progressives Congress chieftains in Aso Villa” and show leadership by visiting the troubled Dapchi, Yobe State, to get a first-hand information on the circumstances surrounding the abduction of the 110 schoolgirls.
The main opposition said the advice, if heeded by the President, would bridge the disconnect between him and Nigerians, who it said daily lament the “aloofness” of their leader.
The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan in Abuja, on Tuesday, said it was disheartening that while the parents of the abducted girls are wailing and the insurgents are fleeing deeper, the President and other APC leaders are busy “feasting in the Presidential Villa” and “plotting their bound-to-fail” 2019 re-election campaign.
“President Buhari has completely reneged on his assurances, before his election, to be a father to all and to lead the fight against insurgency from the fronts,” Ologbondiyan said.
He added, “Nigerians are worried that he has now allowed himself to be holed in the safety and luxury of the presidential villa while citizens are being slaughtered and taken captives by marauders and insurgents.
“Nigerians are shocked that the presidential mandate of protecting lives has now been reduced to a cosmetic dispatching of ministers and persons with no knowledge of security, on mere fact-finding missions, while machinery for proactive security measures are left unattended.
“Today, Nigerians are daily slaughtered and taken as captives because those who have the direct mandate to protect them are more interested in 2019 re-election ambition while the citizens are left to whatever fate befalls them.
“Painfully, Nigerians are yet to see any concrete action taken by the Buhari Presidency to apprehend the perpetrators of the gruesome killings in Benue, Taraba, Zamfara, Adamawa, Borno, Plateau, Nasarawa and Yobe, among other states, where our citizens are being hacked down by marauders and insurgents.
“They are yet to see any step so far taken, outside empty promises, to end or even reduce the carnage.”
Ologbondiyan added that it was appalling that while the parents of the 110 abducted Dapchi schoolgirls “are still wailing and insurgents driving into deeper recesses, the President and his party men are busy feasting in the Presidential villa and plotting their 2019 campaigns; of course, with funds meant for the well-being of the people and our nation.”
He added that the administration is completely “insensitive” to the plight of the people.