PDP faults FG for not announcing US air strike before Trump

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has criticised the federal government’s handling of information on the United States strikes against ISIS terrorists in Sokoto.

On Thursday night, US President Donald Trump announced the “powerful and deadly” strikes against the terrorists.

Kimiebi Ebienfa, the ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson, would later confirm the strike on Friday, noting that the “precision hits” were in keeping with “structured security cooperation” with Nigeria.

In a statement, Ini Ememobong, PDP spokesperson, said Nigerians first learned of the security operation through Trump’s social media accounts and other foreign officials, rather than from their own leaders.

He described the government’s delayed response as a failure of national communication.

“Nigerians were notified of the American strike on terrorists’ assets through the verified social media pages of President Trump and other American officials before the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a vague statement many hours later, offering a passive confirmation of the knowledge and cooperation of the Nigerian Government in the operation,” the statement reads.

“While international cooperation in the fight against high crimes like terrorism is very much appreciated, the Peoples Democratic Party is deeply concerned about a communication structure where foreign powers break the news of security operations in our country before our government does.

“This inverted communication approach does not help the Federal Government or Nigerians in any way, especially when taken against the background that the US military has been reported to have previously entered and operated in Nigeria successfully without the permission and knowledge of the government.”

Ememobong said the federal government should have been the first to report the news to properly sensitise Nigerians.

He said waiting to confirm information already in the public domain suggests that the government was “taken unawares like the rest of the citizens”.

Ememobong urged the federal government to ensure that the defence agreement with the US includes joint operations, which will ultimately result in knowledge sharing and experiential learning to help Nigeria sustainably combat insecurity, rather than “full externally-led precision attacks”.