The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Friday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to resign over the spate of killings and alleged corruption bedeviling his government.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja, the chairman, Uche Secondus, said the Buhari administration was confused and helpless in the fight against Boko Haram, bandits, kidnappers, and other killer groups in the country.
But the Presidency in a reaction said Buhari won’t resign because of an opposition party “afflicted by a life-threatening sickness” called “the undemocratic pandemic.”
Secondus had said: “What the Nigerian senate did on Tuesday when it asked the service chiefs to resign was to show to the world that there is no executive arm of government in place.
“Since Transparency International said a few years ago that the worst corruption was going-on in Nigeria under this regime, the situation has continued to worsen. It has now become a bazaar with no pretence about it with all critical agencies of government including the anti-graft bodies themselves are grossly engulfed in it.
“The nation’s economy is walking to depression… The free for all corruption going on all over the place leaves us with the impression that the country is dying and there has been a scramble for what one can get out of it before the final demise.
“It’s very disheartening that as the looting and re-looting of the nation’s resources are going on under the watch of the acclaimed anti-corruption president, no serious reaction is coming from the government that prides itself to be fighting corruption.
“What we are witnessing in our country today is a total collapse of the nation, the country is on ventilator gasping for air, under such circumstance, President Buhari should do the honourable thing required of an elder statesman. In situations like this, throw in the towel and save the country from ruins,” he said.
Reacting, presidential media aide, Garba Shehu, in a statement, said Buhari was determined to continue the crusade against corruption, especially both legacy and recently unearthed cases found to be “shabbily handled”or “unattended to “by past administrations.
“The PDP cannot scare the government from probing the grave allegations made against MDAs and their chiefs because failure to do so will amount to a historic betrayal of public trust.
“The PDP cannot subject Nigeria’s democracy to subterranean attacks and continue to pretend that they are well-meaning.”
