A former head of state and a chieftain of the All Progressives
Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammad’s Buhari, has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the
PDP to retract its wild accusation linking him with the Boko Haram terrorist
acts, tender an unreserved public apology to him or face a legal action.
In a statement he personally signed in Kaduna
on Thursday Gen. Buhari said: ”I
cannot sit back and allow my image, and that of my political party be smeared by falsehood in the name of politics.”
cannot sit back and allow my image, and that of my political party be smeared by falsehood in the name of politics.”
He said the widely publicized and very serious
allegations made against him by the PDP and its spokesman, Olisa Metuh, to the
effect that his utterances were responsible for the current state of insecurity
and terrorism bedeviling Nigeria, were absolutely without
basis
basis
”To support his claim, Mr. Metuh engaged in
twisted logic and outright distortion – which he called facts – in which he
said that I, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, beckoned on my ‘supporters to go on
lynching spree’ should I lose the 2011 presidential election, as a result of
which ‘an unprecedented violence broke out claiming the lives of
hundreds of innocent people.
hundreds of innocent people.
”I take very serious exception to this grave accusation against
me by the PDP Publicity Secretary. It is a false allegation aimed at tarnishing
my image and reputation in the hope of destroying my political and electoral
standings, and that of my party, the APC, in the country.
”Firstly, it is public knowledge that Boko Haram as a terror
organization long preceded the 2011 presidential elections. My utterances or
lack of them on the 2011 presidential election could not therefore have created
nor sustained the Boko Haram insurgency.
”Secondly, the PDP Government of President
Goodluck Jonathan constituted the Sheikh Ahmed Lemu Panel of Inquiry to
investigate and report on the post-election violence in some parts of the
country. The panel discharged its duties within its terms of reference and
submitted its Report to the President. This Report was accepted by government
and a Whitepaper issued. Nowhere in that Report, a product of thorough
investigation of that unfortunate incident, was I mentioned in the remotest way
to have uttered a word or acted in any form or manner that sparked off the
violence. If I had, certainly that
investigation would have uncovered it. The truth is that I had not.
investigation would have uncovered it. The truth is that I had not.
”Thirdly, 2011 was not the first time I contested a presidential
election and was declared defeated, it was the third! If I had had no cause to
‘beckon on my supporters to go on lynching spree’ in the two previous
occasions, I would have had no cause to change in 2011 – and I did not,” Gen.
Buhari said.
The APC chieftain sald the PDP National Publicity Secretary also
deliberately misquoted the interview he gave in Hausa on May 14, 2012 in which
he said the opposition was determined to fight in the 2015 elections.
”I used the Hausa idiom ‘Kare jini, Biri jini’, which is a metaphor
for a very tough fight. But, like the Islamic fundamentalist toga they falsely
put on me because they cannot impinge on my personal and professional
integrity, PDP apologists deliberately twisted this idiom to mean I called for
violence.
”I am not a violent person and, other than my professional
calling as a soldier, I have never associated with violence, I abhor violence
and have never advocated it. I have always been a law abiding person who
insists on due process and the rule of law in all my private and public
affairs.
”It is therefore a grave infraction to my person, personality
and integrity that such a false and malicious accusation is being leveled
against me by the PDP. This is dangerous politics by the ruling party and it
must stop forthwith,” Gen. Buhari said.
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