The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Benue state chapter says the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, lacks the competence to run a good government in the country.
The PDP in a statement signed by its State Publicity Secretary, Bemgba Iortyom further stated that the APC has remained insensitive to the plight of Nigerians.
The statement made available to The Next Edition, on Sunday, states in part, “Behold: A Trilogy Of Evidence that APC Is Incompetent To Run Government And Is Insensitive To The Plight Of Nigerians.
It said “A string of events over the last few days across Nigeria have depicted once again in gory and graphic detail the manifest incompetence of the APC to handle the very serious and demanding business of governance of our country.
“Also, those events have thrown in our faces the shocking level of insensitivity and outright disdain which the Buhari regime under the control of the ruling party harbour towards the sufferings ordinary Nigerians are going through under their watch, making reference to what it termed as sad and humiliating massacre of over dozens of Nigerian Army troops by Boko Haram at Metele in North East, Nigeria as a
It said this sad occurrence is coming after President Muhammadu Buhari and his cronies have repeatedly claimed that Boko Haram has been defeated.
The statement also named “the motion on the floor of the Senate by the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, Sen. Abdullah Danbaba, to the effect that the Committee, under the chairmanship of Sen. George Akume, has failed in carrying out statutory oversight functions over the Nigerian Army.
“There could be no worse reminder that the leadership of this country is in the hands of indolent and incompetent people than this motion by an APC Senator indicting a committee headed by a fellow APC Senator, George Akume, with himself, the motion mover, as his deputy.
“This motion loudly echoed the fact that in the face of the grave threat posed to national security by a globally ranked terrorist group, Boko Haram, the affairs of the Army, which is the most critical wing of the country’s security apparatus, have been left unsupervised by constitutional powers assigned to watch over it.
“The Chairman of that committee, Senator George Akume, was not even at plenary on the day this motion was move by his deputy, confirming the fact of his chronic absenteeism at the Senate.”
The party maintained that the National Assembly, through its Committee on Army, has the responsibility to assess the performance and needs of the Army with the aim to ensuring that it is kept in a state of preparedness sufficient for it to successfully defend the territorial integrity of our country.
But “the correlation here is that the neglect of the Army by the Senator George Akume led committee has left it operating without the necessary supervision of the Nigerian people.
“Hence, the leadership of this committee cannot be absolved of guilt in the latest setbacks suffered by the Army, the highpoint of which is this recent massacre of troops at Metele.
It noted with disgust that while Senator Akume was absent at Senate plenary to answer to charges of gross incompetence and dereliction of duty raised against him by his own deputy on the Senate Committee on Army, he was, nonetheless, busy leading a delegation of Benue APC stalwarts on a courtesy visit to President Muhammadu Buhari at Aso Rock Villa.
“Absenteeism and dereliction of duty in the Senate have become traits customarily associated with the Benue North-West Senator all through his sojourn in the Red Chamber of the National Assembly since 2007, but while on this recent visit to Buhari, he added treachery against the people of Benue State to his resume.
The state PDP also described as shocking Akume’s statements during the visit claiming that the killings of farmers in Benue State is being orchestrated by the people of the state themselves.
The party noted that by absolving Fulani herdsmen who are widely known to be the culprits, Senator Akume, obviously was seeking to please his host with platitudes.
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According to the party, the sad and grave implication of this trilogy of events is that “the Nigerian Army under the APC has been neglected and the consequence is the unfortunate massacre of the troops at Metele.
“The APC-controlled Buhari regime has time and again displayed unbelievable insensitivity to the plight being suffered by Nigerians and did so once again by holding the courtesy visit of Benue APC stalwarts led by Senator Akume to President Buhari at a moment of national and indeed global grief over the massacre of dozens of Army troops at Metele.
“Senator George Akume has evidently shown a lack of capacity coupled with unwillingness to function effectively as a Senator, as such should be voted out at the 2019 elections.
