The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has described the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as shameless for seeking to make political gain from the rescue of an abducted American citizen by US security forces.
BMO said in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, that PDP was too small-minded to see the link between swift decision-making and a successful rescue mission.
“The success of the joint operation between Nigeria and the US to free Philip Walton from his captors is a reminder of what could have happened when 276 school girls were abducted from their dormitory in Chibok, Borno State on the watch of the then PDP government in 2014.
“Is it that the opposition party did not know that a decision was taken to free the American hostage within a few days of his abduction before it was too late?
“Now we invite Nigerians to compare this scenario with the invasion of a school by Boko Haram insurgents and the abduction of 276 school girls that a sitting PDP government failed to acknowledge for almost two weeks, until it became a national embarrassment.
“We make bold to say that swift decision-making was crucial to the successful rescue mission and this was also clear from the response of the Buhari administration to a similar abduction of 110 school girls from a secondary school in Dapchi,Yobe State, which led to the release of almost all the hostages.
“So is it not ironic that a party which presided over the birth of terrorism in Nigeria, and had a government in place that was globally alleged to have ‘slept on the wheel’ on a hostage situation, is seeking to make capital over a mission that is a stark reminder of its irresponsible action”, the group queried.
BMO also described PDP’s insinuations on the US rescue mission as an insult to the nation’s security forces.
“We are shocked that a party which connived to deprive the military of arms when they needed them, but chose to share $2.1bn set aside for arms purchase, could be the one dropping innuendoes about the security agencies that do not represent on-ground realities.
“There is an ongoing, smooth working relationship between the Nigerian military and their US counterparts, so there is nothing to suggest that the rescue mission had no inputs from our security forces.
“We recall that Nigerian troops were involved in a similar mission by British special forces in Sokoto in 2012 to free a Briton and an Italian held hostage by terrorists.
“So it is ridiculous that a former ruling party could go out of its way to undermine the country’s security agencies in a bid to further its long-running mission of casting needless aspersion on the Buhari administration.
“We know this is not their first time but we appeal to PDP leaders to stop this recurring penchant for attacking the nation’s critical institutions just to score cheap political points.”
It urged Nigerians to be wary of the opposition party’s habit of playing to the gallery.
