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METELE: Presidency, Atiku exchange words over soldiers’ burial

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METELE: Presidency, Atiku exchange words over soldiers’ burial

The Presidency has lambasted Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, for berating President Muhammadu Buhari.

Atiku had decried that President Buhari failed to attend the Friday burial of 19 soldiers, who were among the victims of Boko Haram’s attack on a military base in Metele, Borno State.

The PDP presidential candidate had in a statement on Saturday said that Buhari should emulate French President Emmanuel Macron on how to bury heroic soldiers.

Regretting that neither Buhari nor Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was at the funeral of the military men, Atiku said what was more worrisome was that the Federal Government failed to send a high-powered delegation to represent the government at the funeral.

“This is sad and totally unacceptable. This is beyond politics. This touches our shared humanity. What would it cost the President to take a day and fulfil his role as head of state by attending the funeral of such men of honour and valour?

“I urge President Muhammadu Buhari to learn from French President Emmanuel Macron, who, on March 28, 2018, took a whole day off to attend the funeral of Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame, who was killed by a terrorist after a March 24, 2018 terror attack on the South of France.

“It will be recalled that Time Magazine reported that that singular act by Macron boosted the morale of French security forces more than any other action in France’s war on terror. Nigeria lost the opportunity to do the same thing to our military and security forces.”

He wondered how Buhari could take time out of his busy schedule to host Nollywood stars at the Presidential Villa but could not attend the funeral.

In its response to Atiku, the Presidency reminded him that Buhari had done better than him by visiting the soldiers after the attack. It recalled that Atiku as vice president to Olusegun Obasanjo in 2001, never visited troops after scores of soldiers were killed in Zaki Biam in Benue State.

In defence of the President’s absence at the burial of the soldiers in Borno, the Presidency said Buhari haven condoled with the government and people of Borno State as well visited wounded soldiers recuperating in the hospital after the Metele tragedy, was a demonstration of good leadership.

READ ALSO: BOKO HARAM: Buhari hosts extraordinary summit on security threat in Lake Chad Basin

It said, “The loss of the gallant soldiers, as President Buhari has said, is a national loss, on account of which he went to Maiduguri where he condoled with the government and people of Borno State, addressed the troops at Maimalari Barracks as well as visited the convalescing gallant soldiers. This was a clear case of sensitive and responsible leadership.”

“On the other hand, however, when a similar number of troops (19 soldiers) were abducted and killed in October 2001, neither he (Atiku Abubakar) nor his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, paid any tributes, not to talk of visiting the grieving family members of the martyred soldiers.

“Instead, they sent additional troops, who rounded up the people of the town and authorised an indiscriminate shooting as reprisals.”

The Presidency went further to quote a British Broadcasting Corporation report on the Zaki Biam incident as saying that in “four ethnic-Tiv villages in Benue, soldiers rounded up and killed over 200 unarmed civilians. Zaki Biam, a town of about 20,000 people, was completely destroyed.”

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