PDP: President Buhari’s comments promoting violence in Nigeria

 President Buhari

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has attributed the spate of violence in the country to inflammatory and anti-democratic comments by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The party told the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague to condemn the statement attributed to President Buhari allegedly boasting of his human rights violation of Nigerians when he was military head of state.

In a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the main opposition party ‎said Nigerians were shocked when the president boasted: “when I was in uniform, younger and rather ruthless, I got from president downward, I locked them up in Kirikiri. I said, you’re guilty except you prove yourself innocent.”

PDP said such statement promotes state involved violence, sectional bloodletting, resentment and exacerbates hatred, abuse of rights and brazen violation of the constitution and democratic order.

‎”Whereas our constitution and all tenets of democracy and justice across the world, hold all citizens innocent until proven guilty in court of competent jurisdiction, President Buhari promotes the otherwise and feels favourably disposed to acts that suspends our constitution and imposition of military diktat,” the party stated.

It noted that such hate speech has confirmed the impetus behind “the prevailing executive highhandedness, the trumped-up charges against the opposition, persecution of political opponents, flagrant disobedience to court orders, brazen harassment, arrests, molestations, illegal detention and extra-judicial execution of innocent Nigerians.”

PDP wondered why appointees of the president have continued to hold the institution of democracy, particularly the National Assembly and the courts, in utter disdain.

“Nigeria has not been more divided than it is today under President Buhari and unguarded comments, which have continued to overheat the polity and set citizens against one another.

“The PDP therefore calls on the United Nations, the ICC, all lovers of democracy as well as all compatriots to join hands in condemning this trend that is now obviously threatening to truncate our hard-earned democracy and erode the freedom our people,” the statement added.

The party promised to continue to stand with the people and work for the unity, cohesion and protection of all Nigerians irrespective of creed, ethnicity and political affiliations.