Niger crisis: APC desperate to drag Nigeria into war for ulterior motives, says PDP

By Yohana Samson
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has strongly condemned what it described as the desperation by Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC), to plunge Nigeria into a state of war by dragging our military into a needless conflict with Niger Republic.

In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, in Abuja, on Sunday, the main opposition party noted that it was obvious that the ruling party would stop at nothing to protect its “stolen mandate.”

Ologunagba said, “The PDP observes that 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 destabilize our nation for political reasons.

“While the PDP frowns at unconstitutional change of government in any part of the world, our Party holds that the situation in Niger Republic does not warrant any external peace-keeping effort and does not constitute any threats whatsoever to our national interest to justify committing our already overstretched military to harm’s way in a needless war.

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

“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.

“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).”