The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus in the House of Representatives has told President Bola Tinubu that Nigerians deserve better treatment under him. The caucus says many things have gone wrong, and the people suffer.
At the end of their emergency meeting in Abuja, the PDP lawmakers congratulated Umar Damagun on his emergence as the party’s substantive National Chairman after acting for a few years.
Addressing journalists, the caucus leader, Hon. Fred Agbedi, applauded the peaceful conduct of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Monday.
Agbedi reiterated the call on the President Tinubu-led APC administration to be fair to the people of Osun State and respect a Court judgment on the local government election held in the state.
“We also want to use this opportunity to ask the federal government to release, obey the court, and validate court judgments leading to the validity or validating of the local government elections held in Osun State.
“Osun State is led by a PDP governor, a successful government, and a governor who has proved that he’s in touch with his people and delivers dividends of democracy to the people of Osun State.
“We are surprised that a supposedly democratic person, the president of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who himself encountered a similar situation, is holding the local government funds and local government administration of Osun State to ransom.
“This is anti-democratic, and as a party caucus in the House of Reps, who are lawmakers, we insist that the right thing be done, due process be complied with, legal judgments be obeyed, so that Oshun State and the people of Oshun State and the local governments will enjoy the benefits of the creation and administration of local governments in Osun State.
“So we urge Mr President to put a stop to this illegality that is going on by seizing the funds of Osun local governments in Nigeria and immediately releasing the funds to the validly elected administrations across all the local governments in Osun state,” he said.
The caucus lamented that massive killings are going on across the country, adding that a government that cannot protect its people is not a government that is fit to continue in office.
“Not only killings, there’s a lot of hardship in this country, and Nigerians are groaning in their pains daily. People are committing suicide because the government is not paying attention to them. And Nigerians have come to know that PDP is the only party that can bring so-called to them.
“We can imagine a situation where Nigerians are killed and Mr President is far away in Brazil and other countries. We remember that when the Chibok incident happened, President Goodluck was out of the country, and immediately it happened, he cut off his trip. He returned to Nigeria to show solidarity with Nigerians and Borno State and ensure the government was on the ground to see how our children would recover. Over 10,000 people have been killed in about two years, and it is mind-boggling.
“Nigerians are groaning. Mr President, ensure that you pay attention to the sufferings of Nigeria. And we want to urge Nigerians to insist that there should be good governors, to insist that they are going to, in 2027, ensure that they decide the right person and the right party to lead them, to give support, to ensure that they vote the APC out,” Agbedi said.
The PDP lawmakers also called on the federal government to pay the contractors protesting over the weeks, saying that foreign contractors are being paid while Nigerian contractors are groaning.
They vowed to ensure that whatever is owed to our contractors, Nigerian indigenous contractors who have delivered service, is paid under their contracts, so that they can feed their homes, feed their families, and continue to sustain their business.
