PDP accused of politicising deaths of Badeh, Alkali

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been accused of politicising the deaths of Alex Badeh, chief of defence staff, and Idris Alkali, a retired general.

The Convention for Democracy in Nigeria (CDN) made this claim on Thursday, urged the relevant authorities to call the PDP to order.

Abraham Uke, national president of the group, said the “insensitive politicisation” of the murder of Badeh and Alkali by the opposition party are tools for propaganda.

“Unfortunately, what the PDP has succeeded in doing is to mock Nigerians with the death of some patriots in recent times. This habit is consistent with the party’s history of insensitivity to the pain it has inflicted on citizens, which has continued to echo as the insecurity that the country continues to deal with till date,” he said.

“It is this same insecurity that is responsible for the deaths of the various gallant commanders that the report now attempted to read meanings into. Politicising deaths is insensitive and the PDP’s attempt to malign the Nigerian government with the killing of Badeh and Alkali is irresponsible even for a group of people that were long ago described as a nest of vipers.

‘This desecration of memory of the departed is purely a prop for the purpose of elections. The intention is to instigate crisis in the polity and cause ethnic and religious strife that are all geared towards destabilizing the 2019 General Election.

“Our worry is that as the elections draw nearer there would be more lies that could cost the lives of Nigerians. The PDP is addicted to the strategy of packaging crises and gifting them to Nigerians so that they can turn around to claim they alone should be entrusted with solving the problems they created in the first place.

“As a non-partisan platform, Convention for Democracy will not sit down and watch any Nigerian or group of persons destroy the peace of the country. No one’s ambition is worth destroying Nigeria for and PDP should know this better with the benefit of experience.

“We therefore warn the PDP in the strongest terms to desist from using the misfortune of some Nigerians to promote disunity and hatred against the federal government, the military or any other agency. The accusation against the federal government may make the PDP feel like it is gaining political millage but the reality is that the suspects arrested for the killing of these former military chiefs and other Nigerians will simply plead innocence in court and point to the PDP report as indicting different people for the crimes.”