The
federal government has described as an “act of desperation’’, the statement
credited to the PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, that “killings will
continue if President Muhammadu Buhari is re-elected’’.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai
Mohammed, stated the government position at a media briefing on Thursday in
Abuja.
The minister said that Mr Atiku is desperate
“due to his floundering campaign’’ and admonished the former vice president to
stop bad politicking and politicising killings.
“It is clear to all Nigerians that the
electioneering campaign of the PDP presidential candidate has failed to gain
traction.
“From Sokoto to Ilorin to Ibadan to Gombe, it
has been a disastrous outing for the campaign.
“With that magnitude of failure, anyone can say
anything to stay afloat,’’ he said.
The minister also reacted to the allegation of
clampdown on civil society with the re-arrest and detention of Deji Adeyanju
He said: “There is no clampdown on any civil
society, except in the wild imagination of naysayers.
“As I have said, being in opposition is no
licence to break the law and then hope to escape justice.
“If the police have re-arrested Adeyanju, they
must have a compelling reason to do so. Anyone who breaks the law must face
justice’’.
Mr Mohammed said that the alleged fears that
the security agencies might be partisan during the 2019 polls was the figment
of imagination of the opposition.
“The opposition is only crying wolf where there
is none, and in view of what they did during their 16 years in power.
“They never really won a free and fair
election. Their strategy was to use the security agencies to thwart the wishes
of voters.
“They did it in Ekiti and Osun in 2014. I was a
victim in Osun, so I know what I am saying.
“But the guilty are always afraid. They think
what they have done to others is what will be done to them,’’ he said
The minister assured that under Mr Buhari’s
watch, no security agency would play that kind of ignominious role in any
election.
-NAN
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