FG Has No Business Prosecuting Bandits, Kidnappers – Lai Mohammed

The Federal Government has hit back at the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the press conference it held on Tuesday, where the party chastised the Muhammadu Buhari administration on some topical national issues.

The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, addressed some of the issues the PDP raised at a press conference he convened on Wednesday in Abuja.

“I want to comment on one other issue raised by the PDP at its play-to-the-gallery press conference. The PDP alleged that kidnappers and bandits are not being brought to justice. This is apparently aimed at the Federal Government. It is shocking that a party that ruled this nation for all of 16 years does not know that kidnapping and banditry are not federal offences. The PDP should therefore call out the states, including those being controlled by it, to ensure a rigorous prosecution of arrested kidnappers and bandits,” said the Minister.

Mohammed said, “as far as terrorism, a federal offence, is concerned, this Federal Government has successfully prosecuted thousands of Boko Haram members in Kainji, as part of a continuing exercise. We are now seeking the cooperation of the judiciary to continue with the trial of arrested terrorists.”

THE WHISTLER reported that at the press conference addressed by its national chairman, Uche Secondus, the PDP had accused the Buhari administration of mismanaging the country’s diversity.

The party also accused the Buhari-led All Progressives Congress government of leaving the leadership of the country to presidential spokespersons, adding that the ruling APC runs a “government of exclusion”.

But responding, Mohammed berated the opposition party for playing “cheap politics while playing the ostrich.”

The minister said the PDP forgot, “that this Federal Government has consistently engaged Nigerians on topical national issues, including security, the fight against corruption, terrorism, infrastructure and farmer-herder conflict. The Town Hall Meeting series, which we launched in 2016, has so far been held 18 times across Nigeria. It’s always a no-holds-barred opportunity for the government to engage with critical stakeholders, briefing them on government policies and programmes and getting their feedbacks, thus ensuring inclusion and deepening of democracy.”

Mohammed further said that the PDP was, “more interested in playing politics with national challenges than helping to find solutions to them,” adding that the party, “presented as original thinking some of the same resolutions that we are already working to implement, without a single reference to those same recommendations that emanated from our Town Hall Meeting of April 8th 2021. They disparaged Mr. President and the Federal Government, engaged in name calling and finger-pointing, gloated about the security challenges facing the nation, lied about how they resolved security challenges under their watch and then went ahead to say, at their hysterical press conference, that they have not come to play politics. Who is fooling who here.”