The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to take responsibility for the shooting and reported killing of peaceful and unarmed young protesters by military operatives at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos on Tuesday night.
The opposition, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the buck stopped on the table of the President as the Commander in Chief of the armed forces.
The PDP said it was shocked at President Buhari’s stance, particularly his inability to demonstrate the capacity for concerned, attentive, and proactive governance and command structure, while the nation he presided over dangerously slid into anarchy.
“A well-structured governance response from Mr. President, as the father of the nation, would have calmed frayed nerves and averted the crisis, violence, deaths, destruction of property and the avoidable losses we are witnessing today.
“It is indeed heartrending that our once united, viable, resilient and cohesive nation handed over to President Buhari in 2015 is fast collapsing in his hands.
“In countries where presidents are alive to the demands of their offices, the country would not be in turmoil with citizens being murdered in cold blood as witnessed in our country in the last 48 hours, yet the citizenry cannot find their president or Prime Minister coming out personally to offer consolation, provide direction and give hope.
“Moreover, the video showing police vans and vehicles belonging to other security agencies bringing in and coordinating armed thugs to attack peaceful protesters in Abuja points to serious complicity in high places.”
The PDP wondered why the APC and its agents had kept mute over reports that they were behind the deployment of armed thugs to infiltrate peaceful protests and perpetrated violence to discredit the demonstration.
The party said the plot was to justify their attacks on protesters which had led to an escalation of restiveness in various parts of our country.
It added that the dismantling of security cameras and lights at the Lekki Tollgate before military operatives opened fire on peaceful protesters, further pointed to high-level conspiracy against Nigerians.
The PDP said, “Such unleashing of terror against peaceful demonstrators exposes a dangerous recourse to barefaced brutality, violence and killing to suppress and subjugate the Nigerian people.
“Today, under the APC, our streets are stained with the blood of our promising young ones. Our highways have been turned into battlegrounds where thugs and security operatives mow down citizens and destroy property with reckless abandon.
“Painfully, every command structure that engenders good governance appears to have collapsed and life is gradually returning to the Hobbes “State of Nature” under a system that has gained notoriety for human rights abuse, killings and deploying of security operatives, thugs, vandals and bandits to assault Nigerians whenever they come out to demand good governance.”
The PDP recalled that in December 2019, thugs were brought in trailers to unleash violence on Nigerians who were at the National Human Rights Commission office in Abuja on peaceful protest against series of human rights abuses in the country.
“Till today, the APC-led Federal Government has not explained how a police helicopter was deployed to assault voters in the November 2019 Kogi state governorship election as well as the deployment of thugs to burn a woman leader, Mrs. Salome Abuh to death.
“Our party demands that President Buhari speaks out on the sorry state of our nation under his watch and command.
“His administration has assaulted the foundations of our nationhood and he should accept responsibility.”
The PDP while condoling with the victims restated its belief in a stable, united, and indivisible Nigeria and urged Nigerians not to allow the misrule of the APC to divide or make them lose faith in the nation.
“The PDP will take necessary steps allowed within our laws and the international treaties and laws to protect our citizens and democratic order,” the statement added.
