LOCKDOWN: PDP blames Buhari, APC over Warri killing, condemns security operatives

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned the extra-judicial execution of an innocent Nigerian by security operatives in Warri, Delta state, on Thursday.

The PDP, in a statement by Kola Ologbondiyan, its national spokesman, also condemned reported brutalization of Nigerians in many parts of the country by security forces under the guise of enforcing the lockdown order to check the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.

The PDP insisted that such acts of violence against the citizens cannot be condoned or justified under any guise whatsoever.

The party called on Nigerians to hold the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) responsible for the Warri killing as well as the reported brutalization of Nigerians.

The party noted that the ugly situations would have been averted if the APC controlled Federal Government had heeded wise counsel by the PDP and other well-meaning Nigerians and made adequate provisions for social palliatives that cushioned the economic challenges of the lockdown.

“The APC government had failed to shelve its political interests and heed good suggestions to implement calls to cut taxes, reduce fuel price and use the states and local governments to channel essential commodities to poor Nigerians whose means of survival comes only from their daily struggle on the streets and markets.

“The APC government has also failed to constitute an Eminent Nigerian Group to administer the palliatives and eliminate all political and bureaucratic bottlenecks that are now encumbering easy flow of social panaceas, leading to poor Nigerians coming out to seek for survival on the streets.”

The PDP further blamed the APC and its administration for emboldening acts of violence and extra-judicial killings by security operatives following their failure to bring perpetrators of such acts to book “as even detailed in reports by various reputable international organizations including Amnesty International (AI), Transparency International (TI), European Union (EU), United States Department of State.

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“This is in addition to APC’s tacit endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari’s usual directive to security operatives to “deal ruthlessly with” sundry offenders. Such statement is capable of being translated as license for cruelty and abuse of human rights by over-zealous security operatives,” the party added.

It then called on Nigerians to continue to note how the APC has remained silent and failed to join in the call for provision of adequate social palliatives to the citizens as well as in demanding that killers be brought to book.

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