Somtochukwu

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday said the swift operation by the United States to rescue her citizen held hostage by bandits on Nigerian soil has further confirmed that the Buhari Presidency can neither secure the territorial integrity of the nation nor arrest the wave of insecurity ravaging the country under its watch.

The party described the situation where the United State “had to come on our soil to pull a rescue, as an international embarrassment and shows how low the Buhari Presidency had fallen in its failure to guarantee the safety of lives and property in our country.”

US citizen, Philipe Nathan Walton was kidnapped in the Niger Republic/Nigerian border a few weeks ago after his offer of 40 dollars failed to persuade his abductors.

In a statement signed by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP said “the fact that under President Muhammadu Buhari, bandits and abductors from neighbouring countries now freely cross into our nation to use our soil as detention camps further shows the failure of his administration to secure our national borders and territorial integrity.

“It also shows that contrary to claims by the Buhari administration, parts of our country are still under the control of bandits and insurgents.

“It is indeed grossly disconcerting that under our Commander-in-Chief, a general, who had consistently promised to lead from the front, it took a foreign country to come on our soil to rescue their citizen, while hordes of our citizens are reportedly being held, tortured and killed in various kidnappers’ and insurgents’ dens in various parts of our nation.”

This is even as the PDP said it recalled “that earlier in April, Nigeria was equally embarrassed by reports of how the Chadian President Idris Deby, personally led his troops to rout out insurgents and freed Nigerian territories and soldiers held captive by terrorists in northern part of Borno state, while our leaders recede into the safety and comfort of Aso Presidential Villa.”

It continued: “The fact that other countries with competent and determined leadership have successfully dislodged and vanquished bandits on our soil highlight the incompetence, lack of honesty and want of will power on the part of the Buhari administration to effectively secure our nation.

“The exploits of these countries on our soil only go to show that the bandits, vandals, kidnappers, insurgents are not invincible but have been allowed to take hold of our nation due to the failures of the Buhari administration.

“Such failures had dragged our nation down to rank as the third country with the highest level of terrorism, after Iran and Afghanistan, according to 2019 Global Terrorism Index rating by the Institute for Economics and Peace, IEP.

“Our party believes that the latest experience will compel President Buhari to accede to widespread demand by Nigerians to rejig his security architecture as well as replace his service chiefs with more competent hands to effectively tackle insecurity challenge facing our country.

“Nevertheless, our party commends and immensely values the courage and sacrifices of our gallant troops who are daily risking their lives in the front to safeguard our nation against the insurgents despite the challenges they face.

“The PDP also charges all Nigerians to remain vigilant and continue to pray for our nation at this trying time.”

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