The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said that the kidnap and release of Dapchi schoolgirls were staged managed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to score cheap political point.
The Federal Government said 110 students of the Government Girls Secondary School (Technical), Dapchi, Yobe State were kidnapped on February 19 but disclosed that 101 of them were dropped in the school around 3 am on Wednesday morning.
But PDP said yesterday that the APC and “certain officials in the presidency” might have stage-managed the abduction of the schoolgirls, for political purposes.
PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, while speaking with newsmen said Nigerians need to know how they girls were kidnapped and the circumstances of their release.
“The government had set up an investigative committee, we challenged them to release the report on how they were kidnapped. The mystery surrounding how they were abducted and also released is another issue, which government should explain, whether it was pre-determined nobody knows, ” Prince Secondus stated.
The National Chairman said there is the need for the government to release the investigation report, “because there are doubts here and there. Whether there were conspiracies to get them out and bring them after, to earn some reputation, nobody knows.
”As we challenge the APC government to release the report, we also asked that never again should this type of thing happen in our country, where for purpose of boosting profile of this failed government or whatever the purpose maybe that security left Dapchi school and immediately they left the girls were kidnaped
” Well the government said they negotiated for it, but we charge the APC failed government to also negotiate for the release of the remaining Chibock girls.All these things happening are strange, never happened before. It seems to me that the centre can no longer hold. This APC government is broken.”
Also at a press conference, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, described the abduction and release of the girls as a wicked and callous act.
Ologbondiyan condemned what he described as a calculated attempt torment and “use innocent schoolgirls as pawns in an ignoble script that was designed to hoodwink Nigerians and orchestrate a great rescue….”
He said Nigerians would not forgive the APC and the presidency for the torments inflicted on the girls, their parents and the human community worldwide just to score a cheap political point.
“Nigerians know that the main aim of this devilish act was to delude the public, set the stage for an orchestrated rescue, create a heroic myth and false sense of achievement around the APC administration and serve as a spur for President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration to contest the 2019 presidential election, perhaps in the coming weeks.
“As a political party, we want to further state unequivocally that by all ramifications, this is a war crime against humanity and gross violation of human rights on the part of the APC administration, all in the bid to push a selfish and ill-lucked 2019 ambition,” he said.
Ologbondiyan added that there was no evidence that the Boko Haram insurgents or any militant group abducted the schoolgirls in the first place, adding that what was “evident to all is the high level official manipulation of security movements in Dapchi both in the staged abduction and the returning of the traumatized schoolgirls.”
He noted that the committee headed by the National Security Adviser (NSA), was a deliberate effort by the government to suppress free flow of information around the abduction.
“Nigerians are all aware that both the abduction and return of the schoolgirls were dramatically preceded by questionable withdrawal of troops and all security apparati at checkpoints and flashpoints in the Dapchi area.
“They are also aware that the Buhari presidency, as the principal command center of military operations, has refused to come out clear on the compromising of security and why no arrest has so far been affected in the entire saga, thus betraying a high-level of government conspiracy against the citizens for political reasons.
“The PDP, therefore, calls on the United Nations (UN) and the International Criminal Court to declare this evil by the APC Federal Government a war crime against humanity and immediately commence an investigation on the matter. We demand the arrest and prosecution of all those involved in this saga.
“In the same vein, we join Nigerians to demand for the setting up of a UN-monitored Truth Commission to unravel the facts around the Dapchi event as well as the abduction of Schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State in 2014.
“While we commiserate with the families of our loved daughters and rejoice with those whose daughters were brought home safely, we urge Nigerians to be alert and continue to monitor the activities of the APC as we approach the 2019 general election since it is now clear that this government will stop at nothing in its desperate bid to perpetuate itself in power against the will of the people,” Ologbondiyan added.
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