The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said on Sunday that the military operation by United State troops, which led to the rescue of an American citizen, who was captured in Niger Republic and was being held on Nigerian soil, had further confirmed that the current administration could neither secure the nation’s territorial integrity nor arrest the wave of insecurity in the land.
The US special forces had on Friday rescued the hostage, Philipe Nathan Walton, who was abducted in the neighbouring Niger Republic by Islamic State in West African Province (ISWAP) fighters a few weeks ago and taken across the border.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, said this in a statement titled, ‘US rescue operation again confirms Buhari’s incompetence, says PDP’, in Abuja on Sunday.
The party further described it as an international embarrassment, a situation where the US troops had to enter the country to pull a rescue.
It added that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had failed in its responsibility of guaranteeing the safety of lives and property in the country.
The statement read: “The fact that under President Muhammadu Buhari, bandits and abductors from neighbouring countries now freely cross into our nation to use our soil as detention camps further shows the failure of his administration to secure our national borders and territorial integrity.
“It also shows that contrary to claims by the Buhari administration, parts of our country are still under the control of bandits and insurgents.
“It is indeed grossly disconcerting that under our Commander-in-Chief, a general, who had consistently promised to lead from the front, it took a foreign country to come on our soil to rescue their citizen, while hordes of our citizens are reportedly being held, tortured and killed in various kidnappers’ and insurgents’ dens in various parts of our nation.
“The fact that other countries with competent and determined leadership have successfully dislodged and vanquished bandits on our soil highlight the incompetence, lack of honesty and want of will power on the part of the Buhari administration to effectively secure our nation.
“The exploits of these countries on our soil only go to show that the bandits, vandals, kidnappers, insurgents are not invincible but have been allowed to take hold of our nation due to the failures of the Buhari administration.
“Such failures had dragged our nation down to rank as the third country with the highest level of terrorism, after Iran and Afghanistan, according to 2019 Global Terrorism Index rating by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
“Our party believes that the latest experience will compel President Buhari to accede to widespread demand by Nigerians to rejig his security architecture as well as replace his service chiefs with more competent hands to effectively tackle insecurity challenge facing our country.
“Nevertheless, our party commends and immensely values the courage and sacrifices of our gallant troops who are daily risking their lives in the front to safeguard our nation against the insurgents despite the challenges they face.
“The PDP also charges all Nigerians to remain vigilant and continue to pray for our nation at this trying time.”
