“FG must stop enabling terrorists, criminals” – PDP leadership breathes fire

The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has issued a warning against President Bola Tinubu over the growing insecurity across Nigeria.

The opposition’s National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong in a statement urged the government to do more to guarantee the safety of the lives and property of citizens.

Accusing the President Tinubu-led government of enabling terrorists across the nation, Ememobong said the FG must stop politicising the issue of security in Nigeria.

Citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics which shows that banditry, kidnapping and terrorism are a trillion Naira economy, Ememobong said, since the government now issues orders for bandits and kidnappers to release victims, it should also issue an order for the cessation of the atrocities caused on the nation.

Emphasising the need to tackle the core issues around insecurity, he said the solutions being deployed by the Federal Government are enablers of insecurity, and said that “as long as there is demand, there will be supply.”

Ememobong said, “It is a very dangerous signal, where you now have state actors like the police and the people in government admitting that they meet and discuss with bandits who come with arms and there is no law allowing us to bear arms in this country.”

Also speaking on possible solutions to the issue of insecurity, Ememobong stressed the need for the government to come clean on whether ransoms are paid to secure the release of victims.

On the new presidential directive for the recruitment of more personnel into the police and other security agencies, he wondered how the recruits, who would not be adequately trained, would be able to secure victory in battles where well-trained men and officers are finding it difficult to excel.

According to him, what is needed to win the fight against non-state actors is the political will to direct men of the armed forces to engage, whenever they are on the frontline of battles.

“We must ensure that we do not, either consciously or unconsciously; expressly or impliedly, give an impression that non-state actors have overpowered our Federal Government.”

“All opposition parties will be protected, because a democracy that must thrive, will thrive on competition. It mustn’t thrive on emasculation,” Ememobong said.

While envisaging an implosion in parties with strange bedfellows, having multiplicity of interests, he said for the PDP, “we are consciously rebuilding the party, along the line of transparency; along the line of truth; and along the line of a pan-Nigerian party, which the Peoples Democratic Party was meant to be.”