The leading opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has described the abduction and release of the students of Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, by Boko Haram as stage-managed.
The essence of the alleged stage-managed abduction, the party said, was to score cheap political point all in a bid to ensure that the All Progressives Congress, APC, remained in government beyond 2019.
Speaking at a press briefing, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said his party considered the alleged shenanigan as wicked, callous and tormenting.
According to him, it was a terrible thing to allegedly use innocent schoolgirls as pawns in a script that was designed to hoodwink Nigerians and orchestrate a great rescue and security prowess of a conquering general, all to in an effort to push a 2019 re-election bid.
He stressed that it was “an unpardonable gamble with human lives.”
Ologbondiyan stated further:
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“While this failed Dapchi drama remains a poorly crafted tragicomedy: a scam of no equal dimension, Nigerians are not ready to forgive the APC and the Presidency for the torments inflicted on the girls, their parents and the human community worldwide just to score a cheap political point.
“Nigerians know that the main aim of this devilish act was to delude the public, set the stage for an orchestrated rescue, create a heroic myth and false sense of achievement around the APC administration and serve as a spur for President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration to contest the 2019 presidential election, perhaps in the coming weeks.
“As a political party, we want to further state unequivocally that by all ramifications, this is a war crime against humanity and gross violation of human rights on the part of the APC administration, all in the bid to push a selfish and ill-lucked 2019 ambition.”
Ologbondiyan said as far as his party was concerned, there was no evidence that the Boko Haram insurgents or any militant group abducted the schoolgirls in the first place.
He said rather, what was evident to all was the high level official manipulation of security movements in Dapchi both in the staged abduction and the returning of the traumatised schoolgirls.
He said it was instructive to note that till date, no report had been presented by the National Security Adviser (NSA), who had been charged by President Muhammadu Buhari with investigation of the abduction.
According to him, that was in addition to deliberate efforts by the government to suppress free flow of information around the abduction.
“Even the regular Nigerian on the street has examined the events leading to this abduction of our daughters as well as their release and can deduce the obvious.
“Nigerians are all aware that both the abduction and return of the schoolgirls were dramatically preceded by questionable withdrawal of troops and all security apparati at checkpoints and flashpoints in the Dapchi area.
“They are also aware that the Buhari Presidency, as the principal command centre of military operations, has refused to come out clear on the compromising of security and why no arrest has so far been effected in the entire saga, thus betraying a high-level of government conspiracy against the citizens for political reasons,” Ologbondiyan stated.
He said the PDP therefore called on the United Nations (UN) and the International Criminal Court to declare “this evil by the APC Federal Government a war crime against humanity and immediately commence investigation on the matter.”
He said the PDP demanded the arrest and prosecution of all those involved in the alleged stage-managed abduction.
He stated further: “In the same vein, we join Nigerians to demand for the setting up of a UN monitored Truth Commission to unravel the facts around the Dapchi event as well as the abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State in 2014.
“While we commiserate with the families of our loved daughters and rejoice with those whose daughters were brought home safely, we urge Nigerians to be alert and continue to monitor the activities of the APC as we approach the 2019 general election since it is now clear that this government will stop at nothing in its desperate bid to perpetuate itself in power against the will of the people.”
