By Moses Okorie
Following the invasion of Nigerian territory by the United State forces to rescue their citizen held captive by bandits at North East, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has described President Muhammadu Buhari as an incompetent leader who cannot secure the territorial integrity of his country.
PDP said this on Sunday in a press statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, “The swift operation by the United States to rescue her citizen held hostage by bandits on Nigerian soil has further confirmed that the Buhari Presidency can neither secure the territorial integrity of our nation nor arrest the wave of insecurity ravaging our country under its inept watch.
“The party describes the situation where the United State had to come on our soil to pull a rescue, as an international embarrassment and shows how low the Buhari Presidency had fallen in its failure to guarantee the safety of lives and property in our country”.
PDP alleged that under President Buhari, bandits and abductors from neighboring countries now freely cross into Nigeria to use its soil as detention camps further shows the failure of his administration to secure the national borders and territorial integrity.
“It also shows that contrary to claims by the Buhari administration, parts of our country are still under the control of bandits and insurgents.
“It is indeed grossly disconcerting that under our Commander-in-Chief, a general, who had consistently promised to lead from the front, it took a foreign country to come on our soil to rescue their citizen, while hordes of our citizens are reportedly being held, tortured and killed in various kidnappers’ and insurgents’ dens in various parts of our nation”.
PDP said, it could recall that earlier in April, Nigeria was equally embarrassed by reports of how the Chadian President Idris Deby, personally led his troops to rout out insurgents and freed Nigerian territories and soldiers held captive by terrorists in northern part of Borno State, while the leaders of the country recede into the safety and comfort of Aso Presidential Villa.
“The fact that other countries with competent and determined leadership have successfully dislodged and vanquished bandits on our soil highlight the incompetence, lack of honesty and want of will power on the part of the Buhari administration to effectively secure our nation.
“The exploits of these countries on our soil only go to show that the bandits, vandals, kidnappers, insurgents are not invincible but have been allowed to take hold of our nation due to the failures of the Buhari administration.
“Such failures had dragged our nation down to rank as the third country with the highest level of terrorism, after Iran and Afghanistan, according to 2019 Global Terrorism Index rating by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
“Our party believes that the latest experience will compel President Buhari to accede to widespread demand by Nigerians to rejig his security architecture as well as replace his service chiefs with more competent hands to effectively tackle insecurity challenge facing our country”.
The PDP commended the courage and sacrifices of Nigerian troops who risk their lives in the front to safeguard the country against the insurgents despite the challenges they face. The party also charges all Nigerians to remain vigilant and continue to pray for the nation at this trying time.