TheCable

The All Progressives Congress (APC) wants the international probe of the assassination attempt on its national leader, General Muhammadu Buhari.

Buhari was the target of a bomb attack on July 23 along Ali Akilu road, Kawo, Kaduna while he was going to Daura. He escaped unhurt but a dozen others did not.

His party, APC, has now spoken of the importance of an international probe to unravel the motive and perpetrators of the dastardly act, saying Nigerian security agencies cannot carry out an impartial investigation because they work for the government and not the nation.

In a statement issued on Sunday by its national chairman, John Oyegun, the party said the call had become urgent because the agents of the government had started muddling the waters with their “sickening statements and actions on the attack”.

“‘How does one explain a situation in which a man who is nothing but a pervert is now being paraded as the suspected ‘mastermind’ of the attack on Gen. Buhari? At what point was this man, who perhaps is nothing but a transvestite plying his trade, arrested? Is it not clear, from the statement released by Gen. Buhari himself after the attack, that it was clearly the handiwork of a suicide bomber?” APC queried.

”Could the person who drove the vehicle that was rammed into the General’s convoy have survived the explosion that was triggered by that action? Could the innocent passers-by who died in the blast not have been arrested and paraded as the ‘suspected masterminds’ if they had survived the blast? Clearly, the arrest of the pervert and his sickening description as a ‘suspected mastermind’ have kick-started the process of muddling the waters, as is usually the case with such high-profile cases.

”This is why an urgent international inquiry into the attack is desirable and imperative, and anyone who is committed to an impartial probe of the attack on the opposition leader should embrace our call.’

The party noted that the call had been further justified by the statements and insinuations emanating from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the presidency, both of which now seem to be pointing accusing fingers at the APC that was clearly the target of the failed assassination attempt on one of its top leaders.

”The questions to ask the purveyors of such repugnant theories are: Did the late Emir of Kano also stage the attack on his convoy? Did the other Emirs who were attacked, with at least one of them killed recently, also stage the attack against themselves? Did Gen. Muhammed Shuwa, who was killed by gunmen in Maiduguri in 2012, also stage the attack on himself?

”We are indeed in very interesting times, times that remind one of the failed attempt by the administration of the late military dictator, Gen. Abacha, to blame pro-democracy group NADECO for the series of deadly attacks on pro-democracy activists during the tenure of the administration.

”But we are confident that just as the truth about those who perpetrated those attacks was eventually revealed, the masterminds of the failed assassination attempt on our leader will definitely be exposed sooner than later, whether or not the government agrees to our call for an international inquiry.”