TheCable

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the silence of President Muhammadu Buhari over the attempted assassination of Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue state, calls for serious concern.

On Saturday, gunmen suspected to be herdsmen attacked Ortom’s convoy while on a visit to his farm.

In a statement on Sunday, Kola Ologbondiyan, national publicity secretary of the PDP, alleged that there is a plot by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to disintegrate the country through banditry and electoral violence.

“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alerts the nation of a grand plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to use acts of banditry and electoral violence to disrupt our democratic order and disintegrate the nation, having realized that they have been rejected and can no longer win elections in our country,” Ologbondiyan said.

“The party asserts that the silence of the APC and the Buhari Presidency to the attack and assassination attempt on Benue State Governor, Dr Samuel Ortom, by bandits, who were reported as killer herdsmen, calls for serious concern.

“The PDP also stressed that the silence of the APC and the Buhari Presidency to the violence unleashed by APC thugs, leading to the killing of two innocent Nigerians and a police officer, in the Ekiti State bye-election at the weekend and the postponement of the election, only goes to show that the APC is all out to derail our democracy just because they have been rejected by Nigerians.

“Our party holds that such disposition in the face an assassination attempt on a democratically elected governor by bandits as well as killing of innocent Nigerians and a law enforcement officer by suspected APC thugs amounts to endorsing acts of violence and assault against our democratic order, sovereignty and corporate existence as a nation.

“It is the belief of our party that such silence on an assassination attempt on Governor Ortom is portentous given that the attack came on the heels of his outspokenness in exposing those allegedly behind the incessant attacks on communities in the state and demanding that the Federal Government should live up to its responsibility on the protection of life and property in the state.

“The PDP invites Nigerians to note how the APC and its leaders have been patronizing bandits, terrorists and kidnappers and even justifying their acts of violence against innocent Nigerians while providing cover for the thugs they use in their plot to derail our democratic order.”

On Saturday, the PDP had called on the police to investigate the attack on Ortom’s convoy and arrest the assailants.