The leadership of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Sunday, condemned what it called the desperation of Tinubu and his governing All-Progressives Congress (APC) to plunge Nigeria into war with neighbouring Niger Republic based on ulterior motives.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, PDP said the APC administration’s insistence on drafting Nigerian soldiers into Niger Republic in defiance of the disapproval by the National Assembly and Nigerians, generally, validated apprehensions in the public domain about ulterior motives by the Tinubu-led APC to import crisis and destabilise the nation for political reasons.
PDP said, “While the PDP frowns on unconstitutional change of government in any part of the world, our party holds that the situation in Niger Republic does not warrant any external peace-keeping effort and does not constitute any threats whatsoever to our national interest to justify committing our already overstretched military to harm’s way in a needless war.
“The insistence of the APC government to go to war in Niger Republic is already heightening tension in Nigeria. There are insinuations in the public that the APC is only desperate to deploy Nigerian military to Niger Republic so as to provoke possible external aggression from that country, thereby orchestrating a situation for the declaration of a state of emergency in Nigeria.”
It claimed the idea was “to cripple the judicial process on the 2023 presidential election and divert attention from the hardship the APC has foisted on the nation in the last two months.
“It is apparent that the APC is desperate to orchestrate a situation of ‘imminent danger of invasion or involvement in a state of war’ so as to have the excuse to declare a state of emergency under Section 305 (3) (a) and (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
“The PDP holds that nothing else can explain why the APC administration is eager to go to war in Niger Republic while it has practically turned a blind eye to the insecurity situation in our country, even with the mindless killing of over 500 innocent Nigerians in Plateau, Benue, Niger, Kaduna and other states of the federation since May 2023.”
The party said also distressing was that APC was ready to deploy billions of naira to prosecute a needless war, despite the ailing national economy, crippled production sector, energy crisis, massive unemployment, frightening fall in the value of the Naira, and excruciating hardship in the country occasioned by APC’s ill-informed, hasty and ill-implemented policies.
Deji Elumoye, Chuks Okocha, Kingsley Nwezeh, Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja and Francis Sardauna in Katsina
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