Nigeria’s Ruling Party APC Under Attack From Main Opposition Over Increased Banditry, Killings

The All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party in Nigeria, has come under severe criticism from the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), following the upsurge in Banditry other violent crimes, particularly in the northern part of the country. Recall that, that region has turned a slaughter ground where natives are killed in their numbers on a daily basis.

Even President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state of Katsina is not sparred as the Governor Aminu Maaari has openly admitted that his government had failed the people it swore to protect. As of the last count, more than two hundred persons have lost their lives in the region in the last month. Consequently, the PDP has said that the ruling party has questions to answer regarding the wanthom Killings, while also condemning the arrest of harmless protesters against the unchecked mass killing by bandits and insurgents in Katsina and other parts of the country, particularly in the North.

PDP, in a statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan on Thursday, described as absurd, but revealing, that the APC-led government would arrest, harass and detain victims of the bandits but chose to negotiate, hobnob with and even pay money to the assailants.
“This arrest further raises demands for the APC and its governors, particularly, those who openly confessed to have had contacts, negotiations and financial dealing with the bandits, to come clean on their alleged links with insurgents and marauders.

“Such actions by the APC administration, in addition to utterances of its leaders, have continued to dishearten Nigerians while emboldening bandits and insurgents to continue to pillage our communities, hold towns to ransom and visit all manner of violence on vulnerable Nigerians in various parts of the country,” the party said. 

The PDP recalls utterances by certain APC leaders, including asking victims of attacks not to revenge even in the face of poor security presence in affected communities as well as an admission by the government that the marauders were mercenaries from the Sahel region and armed deserters from late Muammah Gadaffi’s Libya.

The party reminded Nigerians that the APC and its leaders were yet to explain the whereabouts of the thugs they imported as political mercenaries from neighboring countries, particularly Chad and the Niger Republic to support the party’s bid during the build-up to the 2019 general elections.

“Furthermore, the APC and its leaders are yet to answer how marauders who were already pushed to the fringes by the PDP administration, resurged under their watch.

“Nigerians can recall that prior to the 2015 general elections, the insurgency had been extensively compressed, leading the successful conduct of the general election in all the 774 local governments across the country.    
“It is therefore clear that the constant narrative by the APC that some local governments were under the control of insurgents when it took over office, is mere propaganda.

“The situation in Katsina and other Northern states ought to be seen by the Buhari administration as a patriotic call to wake up to its responsibilities and take a decisive action to flush out the bandits and secure our nation,” the PDP said.