Foreign mercenaries: APC leaders fueled terrorism, PDP tells el-Rufai

• Why Nigerians should not trust PDP with power again — Presidency
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said, yesterday, that the expression of frustration and threats by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, to invite foreign mercenaries to fight terrorists in Nigeria is a further confirmation and admission of the failure of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration.

The party, however insisted that el-Rufai could not distance himself from those responsible for fueling and aiding insecurity, which degenerated to acts of terrorism ravaging the nation today.

In a statement by its national publicity secretary, Debo Ologunagba, the PDP said “the alarming insecurity situation in Nigeria that has led to the killing and maiming of tens of thousands of our compatriots since the APC took office in 2015 is the result of the actions and comments by APC leaders and government officials who encouraged acts of terrorism in the name of politics.

Nigerians can recall how ahead of the 2019 general elections, el-Rufai threatened that “those that are calling for anyone to come and intervene in Nigeria, we are waiting for the persons that will come and intervene, they will go back in body bags.”

The statement continued: “Nigerians have not forgotten how in November 2020, the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency, through its spokesperson, Shehu Garba, rationalised the beheading of 43 rice farmers in Borno State by terrorists and blamed the farmers for not obtaining clearance before going to their farms.

“Governor el-Rufai should know that he and other APC leaders cannot under any circumstance distance themselves from blame in the worsening insecurity, pain, horror, social dislocation of families and life-discounting experiences being encountered daily by Nigerians under the APC.”

MEANWHILE, the Presidency has listed some mistakes allegedly committed by the PDP government and concluded that Nigerians cannot trust them again with the running of the country. The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, said this in reaction to the communique issued by the PDP Governors’ Forum.

The PDP governors had in a communique issued on March 23 stated that life was better under the PDP administrations from 1999 to 2015 than it is currently under the APC.

However, in a delayed reaction, the Presidency, in a statement yesterday titled: ‘Issues from the PDP fantasy communique from Umuahia,’ said the governors of the former ruling party were trying to cover up “the serial and criminal failures of the PDP’s long and damaging period in office.”

The statement read in part, “The rejected PDP fantasy communiqué is a work of fiction by those who truly believe black is white and one plus one equals three. We cannot forget under PDP, the nation had an army full of phantom soldiers whose pay went to PDP politicians’ pockets while our under-resourced real soldiers died in the fight against terrorist insurgents and our international allies refused to supply Nigeria kit and military aid.

“We cannot ignore how PDP politicians sought – and continue to seek – to inflame ethnic and religious tensions by refusing to even proffer a solution to the herder-farmer clashes which became most prevalent under their misrule.”

The Presidency further accused the PDP of intentionally encouraging and exploiting the black market in currency exchange to convert ill-gotten gains to foreign currency and undermine the national currency.

It added that under the current administration, the national currency was more stable; the country had also achieved self-sufficiency in rice and fertilizer production as “greedy politicians and businessmen” have been prevented from hiding their money overseas, but building an economy here in Nigeria for all.