Boko Haram: We’ll not criticize Buhari if he fails to meet deadline – PDP

By Henry Umoru

NATIONAL leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP said yesterday that it would support President Muham-madu Buhari if he fails to achieve the set deadline to end insurgency in the North East which has remained a major security challenge confronting the  country, rather than criticize the All Progressives Congress, APC led government.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja when he received a youth group under the aegis of Northern Youth Network  at the party national secretariat, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh said: “APC had promised that they were going to end insurgency in two weeks, they later said it will be over in two months and after that they now gave December 31 deadline to end Boko Haram.

“Now, in spite of the language it is couched in shifting the goal posts, and despite  all the infractions and all kinds of destructive criticisms  APC rained on us when they were in opposition, the PDP as a national party will refrain from making comments on issues on the inadequacies pertaining to the war against insurgency in the country.

“For us in the PDP,  we remain completely in support of the federal government in the war to eradicate insurgency  in our land and we enjoin all Nigerians to support President Muhammadu Buhari in the war against terror. The war by the terror group is not against the President, it is not against the APC neither is it against the PDP. It is rather a war being waged against Nigerians and the countrymen should stand as a united force with our President to fight and defeat the insurgents.

“If we do this we will be fighting for a common good. We would sent a message to those that seek to divide us that we are indivisible and that Nigeria is truly one country and that we want to remain so. We have decided not to discuss things pertaining to the war against insurgency and we will stand by the President as the leader of country.

“But in doing so we will not hesitate or shy away from making our views known on other areas we feel that the government is not doing well. We will not be intimidated nor harassed into abandoning our role as the leading opposition party. We will remain a viable and vocal voice of the opposition and we will remain focused in our constructive criticism against the government of the day.”

Earlier, while explaining their mission, the leader of the Northern Youth Network, Mike Suswan, said they have come to show appreciation for the efforts being made by the PDP to give the opposition a strong voice under the present dispensation.

According to the group, as members, they were pained about the lingering fuel scarcity, which the federal government was still struggling to deal with, just as  it condemned the composition of the federal cabinet, which has excluded the youths.