PDP, APC senators bicker over insecurity

Senators of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) have exchanged words over the country’s rising insecurity.

The country is currently recording an increase in insurgency, kidnapping and banditry.

While the lawmakers in the opposition party have threatened to use “constitutional measures” against President Muhammadu Buhari over the security challenges confronting the country, the legislators in the ruling party have passed a vote of confidence on the commander-in-chief.

The PDP lawmakers said the APC government is unable to stop the “drift to anarchy of our nation at this time”.

“This APC-led government, at inception and during campaigns prior to 2015 elections, made promises to the Nigerian public, the first of which was that they were going to deal with security challenges within their tenure,” Enyinnaya Abaribe, senate minority leader, told journalists.

“Sadly, and most unfortunately, from 2015 to date, rather than resolving the security situation, the APC-led federal government had rather broadened the security challenges.

“So, from the problems of the north-east, it has spread to other parts of the country. Virtually all parts of Nigeria are now beset with one security challenge or the other.

“We have not seen our president. We have not heard from our president despite the daily killings that have turned Nigeria into a killing field of unimaginable proportions.”

But in a statement on Wednesday,
Yahaya Abdullahi, senate majority leader, said the comments of the minority caucus is capable of “over-heating an already charged polity”.

Abdullahi said it is “cheap politics” for his colleagues in the PDP to assert that the president has not been seen or heard over the rising insecurity.

“We take exception to the unfortunate charge that our President has not been seen. This is false and cheap politics,” he said.

“Mr. President and service chiefs are meticulously busy every day and every night in deliberations with a view to addressing the security challenges across the entire country.

“It is a well-known fact that the federal government under the PDP refused to invest in the security infrastructure of the country, while Mr. President under the APC-led government had massively invested in this regard more than any past governments and we are confident that the nation will surmount its current security challenges.

“The APC caucus strongly and unreservedly supports the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari as we continue to work on addressing the economic, health, social, security and other challenges that beset our nation.”