Atiku: Buhari, APC lack empathy for holding dinner meeting after Owo church attack

Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, says President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) should have cancelled the dinner meeting held by party members after the Owo church attack.

On Sunday, gunmen attacked St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, killing many worshippers and injuring several people.

The incident has elicited public sympathy locally and internationally.

Hours after the incident, Buhari met with APC stakeholders and some governors at the state house.

Reacting in a statement signed by Paul Ibe, his spokesperson, Atiku said the meeting of the APC leaders suggests their “lack of empathy to the mood of the nation”.

“It is disconcerting that on the very day when the whole of the country and the rest of the world was in a sober mood, on account of the massacre in Owo, Ondo State, the ruling party, All Progressives Congress could not find the moral rectitude to cancel a dinner with their presidential aspirants, slated for the evening of Sunday, 5 June,” the statement reads.

“Needless to say that the so-called primary election is standing on the backdrop of the reported claim of President Muhammadu Buhari to be given an opportunity to handpick his successor.

“With blood of innocent worshippers flowing on the streets of the Sunshine state, leaders of the APC are gathered in Abuja, treating themselves to sumptuous dinner in a manner that suggests lack of empathy to the mood of the nation.”

The PDP presidential candidate also described the APC presidential primary as a “charade”.

“However, if the charade that the APC calls a presidential convention primary election is merely to handpick an anointed candidate, it is important to ask the managers of the ruling party why they elected to slate the so-called convention for a working day, thereby disrupting economic activities around the federal capital territory,” he said.

“Even as delegates in the so-called election entered into the Federal Capital Territory, they must have been greeted with long queues of vehicles waiting to buy automobile fuel and darkness that continues to grim the capital city on account of seizures in electricity supply.

“Should the APC delegates ask themselves what they have been brought to Abuja for, they should know that primaries of their party is not about any of the individuals vying for the presidential ticket of their party, but a referendum on the APC’s scorecard in the past 7 years.”