‘NECESSARY EVIL’ COMMENT: Not only FCT residents, Nigerians rejected you, PDP tells Buhari

Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has criticised President Muhammadu Buhari for branding residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja as “necessary evil” because they did not vote for him in the February 23 presidential election.

The party said Buhari’s comment was completely un-presidential and worthy of condemnation by all, adding that the President should understand that it was not only FCT residents that rejected him but majority of Nigerians.

President Buhari had allegedly made the comment on Tuesday when some FCT residence paid him Sallah homage in Abuja. He had allegedly branding them ‘necessary evil’, but said he will nonetheless provide them with security as securing them amounts to securing himself and his Vice, Yemi Osinbajo.

But the PDP in a statement on Wednesday through its national spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, lamented that Buhari’s comment was “inciting, divisive and capable of demonizing innocent compatriots and setting them up for victimization by overzealous agencies.”

PDP went further to say, “Moreover, President Buhari should note that he was not only rejected by FCT residents but also by an overwhelming majority of Nigerians across the states of the federation, who voted massively for the PDP, only for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to subvert the will of the people in his favour; consequent upon which our party and presidential candidate have headed for the retrieval of this stolen mandate at the tribunal.

“Furthermore, the PDP criticized President Buhari for stating that ‘to make FCT secure is to make myself secure and the Vice President’.

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“The party holds that it is the duty of the President to provide security for all parts of the country, irrespective of where he and the Vice President reside or how Nigerians cast their votes.

“The PDP maintains that the security of lives of all Nigerians, ought to have been paramount to the President and not determined by inessential factors, if indeed he has the interest of the people at heart.”

The opposition party therefore called on Buhari to apologise to Nigerians for the necessary evil comment.

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