The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned,
the gruesome attack on Government Science Secondary School,
Kankara, Katsina state, by bandits, leading to the reported deaths
and abduction of scores of students.
In a communique by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP
said it is standing with the entire Katsina people to charge
President Muhammadu Buhari, as the Commander-in-chief, “who
promised to lead from the front, to account for the abducted
students, as the large-scale abduction happened a few hours after
the President and his security machinery took over the state”.
The party held as perplexing that at a time the people of
Katsina should have heaved a sigh of relief because of his
presence, the abduction happened right under Mr. President’s nose;
in his home state, where he had gone holidaying.
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Immediate Closure Of All Boarding Secondary Schools
Mr Ologbondiyan’s communique further claimed that this
development has further “exposed the failure of President Buhari to
manage high-level security intelligence that ought to accompany a
presidential visit”.
The PDP noted as distressing that President Buhari refused to
honour an invitation by the House of Representatives for a
collective deliberation on security, and “abandoned his duty post
for a holiday, leaving the national flanks open for terrorists,
bandits, vandals, and insurgents”.
According to the PDP, the time of this attack buttresses the
fact that President Buhari, as the commander-in-chief, is “totally
incapable of securing our nation; the very reason there have been
widespread calls by patriotic Nigerians that he should resign”.
“This insolence of Mr. President towards issues of national
security compelled our caucus in the House of Representatives to
demand for his impeachment.
“Our party believes that if President Buhari had listened to
wise counsel as proffered by the PDP and other patriotic Nigerians
including the two chambers of the National Assembly to rejig the
nation’s security architecture, our situation would not have
deteriorated to this sorry state.
“Moreover, this particular abduction in the President’s home
state, under his watch, raises further serious questions over this
government’s capacity to fight insurgency.
“This is more worrisome as the state government had been known
to have established contacts with, as well as pampering bandits,
which Mr. President had not condemned,” the party’s statement read
in part.
The PDP demanded that President Buhari should immediately quit
his holidaying in Daura and go in search of, and rescue the
abducted students, particularly having earlier admitted that issue
of security is his exclusive responsibility.
PDP sympathized with the people of Katsina state, particularly
the parents of the kidnapped students, who have been subjected to
the harrowing experience.
The opposition party stated that while working in concert with
other patriotic Nigerians it will not rest until President Buhari
finds and returns each of the missing students.
PDP urged Nigerians to remain alert and prayerful as the nation
wades through the nightmare under what the party has termed an
insensitive, inept, and uncoordinated administration.