Niger: Tinubu, APC Have Ulterior Motive For Insisting On Military Option – PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said the President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have an ulterior motive for insisting on dragging the military into a needless conflict with Niger Republic.

The PDP said the insistence by the APC administration to draft Nigerian soldiers into Niger Republic in defiance to the disapproval by the National Assembly and Nigerians across board, validates apprehensions in the public domain of ulterior motives by the Tinubu-led APC to import crisis and destabilise the nation for political reasons.

PDP said while it frowns at unconstitutional change of government in any part of the world, the situation in Niger Republic does not warrant any external peace-keeping effort and does not constitute any threats whatsoever to Nigeria’s interest to justify committing its already overstretched military to harm’s way in a needless war.

The party added that the insistence of the APC government to go to war in Niger Republic is already heightening tension in Nigeria.

A statement by the national publicity secretary of PDP, Hon Debo Ologunagba, said “There are insinuations in the public that the APC is only desperate to deploy Nigerian military to Niger Republic so as to provoke possible external aggression from that country, thereby orchestrating a situation for the declaration of a State of Emergency in Nigeria with the tendency to cripple the judicial process on the 2023 Presidential election and divert attention from the hardship the APC has foisted on the nation in the last two months.

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“It is apparent that the APC is desperate to orchestrate a situation of “imminent danger of invasion or involvement in a state of war” so as to have the excuse to declare a State of Emergency under Section 305 (3) (a) and (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

“The PDP holds that nothing else can explain why the APC administration is eager to go to war in Niger Republic while it has practically turned a blind eye to the insecurity situation in our country, even with the mindless killing of over 500 innocent Nigerians in Plateau, Benue, Niger, Kaduna and other States of the federation since May 2023.

“Also distressing is that the APC is ready to deploy billions of naira to prosecute a needless war despite our ailing national economy, crippled production sector, energy crisis, massive unemployment, frightening fall in the value of the Naira and excruciating hardship in the country occasioned by its ill-informed, hasty and ill-implemented policies.

“Such can only come from an anti-people administration that has no iota of interest in the security and wellbeing of the nation and its citizens.

“The PDP urges the Military High Command to take note of the disapproval of the National Assembly to the deployment of our troops to Niger Republic and be guided by the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).”