The All Progressives Congress (APC) has strongly condemned the recent
\ndeadly terrorist attacks in Abuja and Bauchi that killed at least 37
\npeople and injured many more, calling the Boko Haram group suspected to be
\nbehind the attacks despicable and inhuman in its misguided terror
\ncampaign.<\/p>\n
The Party said strategy adopted by the Federal Government has failed to
\nyield the necessary results to stop the activities of the Boko Haram Sect.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity
\nSecretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party repeated its earlier statement
\nthat nothing can justify the spilling of the blood of innocent citizens,
\nwhile commiserating with the families of the victims.<\/p>\n
It called on the Federal Government to review its strategy for the fight
\nagainst terrorism, saying whatever is being done now is definitely not
\nworking, hence the deadly terrorist attacks have almost become a daily
\naffair.<\/p>\n
\u201dWhatever strategy being used by this Federal Government is not yielding
\nenough positive results. Otherwise, these terrorists would not have gone
\nfrom carrying out their attacks on the outskirts of a city like Abuja, for
\nexample, to exploding a bomb right in the heart of the city as was
\nwitnessed in Wuse 2 last week,\u201d APC said.<\/p>\n
The party wondered in particular why Abuja has remained so vulnerable to
\nsuch attacks, considering the millions of Naira reportedly spent on the
\nCCTV project that was supposed to help secure the city, asking: \u201dOr has
\nthis project again become a victim of the runaway corruption and
\nincompetence for which this administration is renowned?\u201d<\/p>\n
The party said instead of reaching out across partisan lines as the
\nopposition has suggested several times, the Federal Government has
\nresorted to chasing shadows while the killing of innocent citizens
\nintensifies<\/p>\n
\u201dThe scorecard of this Federal Government in the fight against terror is
\nvery dismal. Some 76 days after over 200 girls were abducted from Chibok,
\nthe girls are not any nearer home today than they were on the day they
\nwere abducted, and all the clueless and ineffective Administration of
\nPresident Jonathan can do is to engage in image laundering that has caused
\nthe taxpayers US$1.2 million; witch-hunt the media as well as those
\nperceived to be opponents of the Administration and engage in a continuous
\nand unprecedented abuse of national institutions.<\/p>\n
\u201dThis Administration could have pumped the US$1.2 million it frittered
\naway in the name of image laundering in the US into the fight against
\nterror, which seems to have waned. Unfortunately, as the President kicked
\nstarted his wasteful image laundering with an op-ed in The Washington
\nPost, he was being skewered in another US newspaper, The New York Post.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe paper\u2019s (New York Post) Editorial Board wrote of the President\u2019s
\nnewspaper diplomacy: \u2018Remember, this is the same leader whose military
\ninitially claimed it had freed the girls, whose wife\u2019s anger was directed
\nat Nigerians protesting the government\u2019s inaction rather than the
\nkidnappers and who presides over Africa\u2019s largest economy and
\nfourth-largest armed forces\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201dThere is no better demonstration of the fact that the Administration has
\nwasted public funds on a misbegotten image laundering than this,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
APC also described the treatment meted out to pilgrims travelling to Saudi
\nArabia for lesser Hajj from the Maiduguri airport as another in a series
\nof shadow-chasing by the government, which will rather misuse national
\ninstitutions to flex muscles against innocent citizens than tackle the
\nterrorists headlong.<\/p>\n
The party said forcing the pilgrims to travel by road from Maiduguri to
\nKano to be airlifted is callous and poorly-thought-out, considering the
\ndangers they are likely to face on the road.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe argument that the airlifting from Maiduguri was stopped at the last
\nminute because of security is hogwash. Is that also the same reason that a
\nprivate plane that flew into the same airport with eight people on board
\nwas forced to fly back empty after those who wanted to travel in it were
\nprevented from doing so? Is it the same security reason that forced the
\nclosure of Akure airport even as planes that ferried APC leaders to the
\nairport were on the tarmac? Is it also why newspapers were targeted across
\nthe nation?<\/p>\n
\u201dThe truth is that the Jonathan Administration is playing dirty politics
\nwith the fight against terror, using national institutions to abridge
\nconstitutionally-guaranteed rights,\u201d it said.
\nAPC advised the Federal Government to stop wasting public funds on image
\nlaundering because no good advert can sell a bad product.<\/p>\n
\u201dThis government should realize that its raison d\u2019etre is the security and
\nwelfare of Nigerians, and that it has failed woefully in this regard.
\nTherefore, it should be humble enough to admit its limitations and then
\nreach out to all stakeholders, including those in the opposition, to rejig
\nits anti-terror strategy and save our innocent citizens from the killings
\nand maiming by Boko Haram,\u201d the party said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has strongly condemned the recent deadly terrorist attacks in Abuja and Bauchi that killed at least 37 people and injured many more, calling the Boko…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n