Lead Search For Abducted Students, PDP Tells Buhari

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned, the gruesome attack on Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina state, by bandits, which led to the reported abduction of scores of students.

Eko Hot Blog reported on Saturday that about 600 students were abducted when armed bandits stormed the school premises late Friday.

The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said it stands with the people of Katsina State to charge President Muhammadu Buhari, as the Commander-in-chief, “who promised to lead from the front, to account for the abducted students, as the large-scale abduction happened a few hours after the President and his security machinery took over the state”.

The party said it is perplexed that at a time the people of Katsina should have heaved a sigh of relief because of the president’s presence, the abduction happened right under his nose; in his home state.

The statement further claimed that this development has further “exposed the failure of President Buhari to manage high-level security intelligence that ought to accompany a presidential visit”.

The PDP pointed out as distressing President Buhari’s refusal to honour an invitation by the House of Representatives for a collective deliberation on security, and “abandoned his duty post for a holiday, leaving the national flanks open for terrorists, bandits, vandals, and insurgents.”

According to the PDP, the time of this attack buttresses the fact that President Buhari, as the commander-in-chief, is “totally incapable of securing our nation; the very reason there have been widespread calls by patriotic Nigerians that he should resign”.

Read also: IGP Sends More Officers To Katsina After Bandits’ Attack

“This insolence of Mr. President towards issues of national security compelled our caucus in the House of Representatives to demand for his impeachment.

“Our party believes that if President Buhari had listened to wise counsel as proffered by the PDP and other patriotic Nigerians including the two chambers of the National Assembly to rejig the nation’s security architecture, our situation would not have deteriorated to this sorry state.

“Moreover, this particular abduction in the President’s home state, under his watch, raises further serious questions over this government’s capacity to fight insurgency.

“This is more worrisome as the state government had been known to have established contacts with, as well as pampering bandits, which Mr. President had not condemned,” the party’s statement read in part.

The PDP, however, demanded that President Buhari should immediately quit his holidaying in Daura and go in search of, and rescue the abducted students, particularly having earlier admitted that issue of security is his exclusive responsibility.

While sympathizing with the people of Katsina state, particularly the parents of the kidnapped students, who have been subjected to the harrowing experience, the party said it will not rest until President Buhari finds and returns each of the missing students.