PDP seeks national conference on security
*Says possibility of election holding in 2023 hazy
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday called for immediate convocation of a National Conference and declaration of emergency on security in the country.
The PDP said that with “security challenges getting out of hand” and anarchy brewing in the country, the possibility of elections holding in 2023 was hazy.
It said the national conference on security and state of emergency was important to save “our democracy” since the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has “shown clearly its incapacity” in protecting lives and properties in the country.
PDP National Chairman Uche Secondus stated this in his opening address at the party’s emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja.
But Katsina State Governor Aminu Masari differed with the nation’s main opposition party on the need for a state of emergency. Masari pointed out that the agencies, like the military, needed to effectively implement such policy were already overstretched.
National Chairman of the PDP Uche Secondus, who received a confidence vote from the PDP leadership during the NEC meeting had lamented that anarchy had been let loose on the people with the government unable to provide any matching resistance.
He, therefore, charged leaders and stakeholders in opposition parties to rise to the challenge posed by the festering insecurity with a view to “saving our democracy and the country.”
The PDP chairman said: “The need to save our democracy and country has become necessary as nothing, not even 2023 is realistic if security issues are not adequately addressed.
“Having shown clearly its incapacity, the APC led-government has swallowed its pride and now invited the international community to come and help out. This ought to have been done long ago instead of pretending and spilling innocent blood.
“For us as opposition, any sacrifice to stop the endless bloodletting of innocent citizens should be activated, including but not limited to the immediate convocation of a national conference on security for comprehensive and all-embracing deliberation on the future of this country.”
In a communiqué released after the meeting by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP also cautioned party members at all levels to be wary of agents of division whose objective is to destabilize the PDP.
Ologbodiyan was referring to an allegation of financial mismanagement levelled against the leadership of the party by a former member of the PDP Presidential Campaign Committee, Kassim Afegbua.
Earlier yesterday, Masari told reporters after meeting with the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, in Abuja, that state of emergency would not achieve the effect that Nigerians desire now in the fight against insecurity.
He reasoned that the security structure and personnel that would be used to execute state of emergency requirements were already overstretched.
The governor called on all Nigerians to be involved in the task of finding peace and security for the country.
Masari asked: “How can the state of emergency solve the problem? You have a situation where the military in all the states is overstretched. So, the responsibility of securing this country is ours, all of us.
Also yesterday, the Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Judiciary, Mr Onofiok Luke, explained why the Federal Government has not been able to curb the security challenges in the country.
Luke said the agencies charged with security do not have a well-coordinated leadership command.
His words: ”One thing is clear, there is a lack of leadership. We don’t have a coordinating leadership to lead us to where we have to get to. Everybody seems to be operating independently.”
“We have a problem that everybody has a role to play and we had better play it. The security situation of this country is beyond partisan politics; it’s a national concern for all of us.”
Source: thenationonlineng.net
