The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has reiterated that it will continue to
caution APC leaders against making utterances that fuel violence and
motivate insurgency in the country.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh in a statement on
Tuesday however noted that releases from the ruling party exposing the
negative consequences of unguarded utterances by politicians have
succeeded in sobering some APC leaders.
“As a responsible party, the PDP has made its point on the utterances,
comments and statements by politicians which tend to influence and/or
instigate people to violence and we believe that our statements have made
APC and some of their leaders more responsive to their collective duty of
verbal restraint.
“However, we still decry attempts by the APC to seek cheap publicity by
making classless, childish, immature and ineffective statements on
terrorism matters. Sometimes they even speak as if they control their
actions”, the statement said.
The PDP also condemned Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako’s tendencious
letter to the governors of the 19 Northern states saying it is shocking
that such came from an elected person. It said Governor Nyako should learn
from other APC leaders who have started guarding their utterances.
“Governor Nyako must desist from such and learn from other APC leaders who
are now comporting themselves better as a response to PDP statements which
succeeded in exposing the link between their unguarded utterances and
escalation of violence and insurgency in our nation”, the party said.
The PDP also charged all political figures across board to guide against
making violence-instigating statements even as it implored President
Goodluck Jonathan and the 36 state governors to come up with a strong
resolution to stop the trend.
The party also called on all Nigerians, especially respectable politicians
to continue to unite against terrorism and all forms of tendencies that
promote violence and divide rather than unite the nation.
“Our resolve is to join hands with responsible, respectable and patriotic
Nigerians to highlight and promote our desire to live together in a
strong, peaceful and united Nigeria. Our enemies are at the gate, but
together we will keep them out as we continually watch our comments and
utterances”, the statement said.