#ENDSARS: Take responsibility for killings of young Nigerians, PDP tells Buhari, APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to take responsibility for the shooting and reported killing of peaceful and unarmed young protesters by military operatives at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos on Tuesday night.

“President Muhammadu Buhari is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and the buck stops on his table,” the PDP said in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Wednesday.

Video evidence showed soldiers opened fire on peaceful and unarmed protesters holding Nigerian flags at Lekki toll gate, killing many of them and injuring several others.

The PDP in its statement in response to Buhari’s silence over the matter said;

“Our party is however shocked at President Buhari’s stance, particularly his inability to demonstrate the capacity for concerned, attentive and proactive governance and command structure, while the nation he presides over dangerously slides into anarchy.

“A well structured governance response from Mr. President, as the father of the nation, would have calmed frayed nerves and averted the crisis, violence, deaths, destruction of property and the avoidable loses we are witnessing today.

READ ALSO: Buhari using thugs to disrupt #EndSARS protesters across the country –Fani-Kayode

“In countries where presidents are alive to the demands of their offices, the country would not be in turmoil with citizens being murdered in cold blood as witnessed in our country in the last 48 hours, yet the citizenry cannot find their president or Prime Minister coming out personally to offer consolation, provide direction and give hope.

“Moreover, the video showing police vans and vehicles belonging to other security agencies bringing in and coordinating armed thugs to attack peaceful protesters in Abuja points to serious complicity in high places.

“The APC and its agents in government circles had kept mute over reports in the public space that they are behind the deployment of the armed thugs to infiltrate peaceful protests and perpetrate acts of violence so as to discredit the demonstration and justify their attacks on protesters; a development that had led to escalation of restiveness in various parts of our country.

“Furthermore, the unexplained dismantling of security cameras and lights at the Lekki Toll gate before military operatives opened fire on peaceful protesters, further points to high-level conspiracy against Nigerians,” the party said.

According to the opposition the unleashing of terror against peaceful demonstrators as is being experienced under Buhari’s government “exposes a dangerous recourse to barefaced brutality, violence and killing to suppress and subjugate the Nigerian people.”

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