The New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to summon his party’s governors to order in order to prevent the hard-won democracy in Nigeria from being undermined.
The call was made by the NNPP in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Agbo Major, in response to the attack on the People’s Democratic Partys (PDP) presidential campaign convoy that occurred on Wednesday in Maiduguri, Borno State, and which left at least 70 people injured and several vehicles damaged.
Before the crucial general election in 2023, which will rewrite and reshape the country’s future, it was claimed that the attack was outrageous, barbaric, and disgusting. It was also intended to undermine the nation’s developing democracy.
The party urged all supporters of the rule of law to denounce and oppose this heinous action by what it called anti-democratic elements that seek to impose the rule of tyranny in lieu of our cherished traditions of tolerance and unity in diversity.
The most recent assault on the nation’s flimsy democracy, according to the statement, demonstrates the desperation and intolerance of opposing political parties on the side of the ‘departing’ All Progressives Congress (APC) in Borno State.
The party said, “In August this year, our great party, the NNPP was a victim of this political intolerance and executive recklessness in the state when Governor Babagana Zulum was jittery over the ever-increasing popularity and acceptance of the party’s Presidential Candidate, His Excellency, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (FNSE), Ph.D. invited the police to seal off NNPP’s two secretariats in Maiduguri, the state capital ahead of his visit to commission the secretariats.
“The national outcry it generated forced the police to vacate the secretariats which paved way for the party’s presidential candidate to visit the state. During the same visit, our presidential candidate’s convoy was attacked at the Bulumkutu railway crossing in the suburbs of Maiduguri as he made his way to the airport to depart the state.”
The NNPP advised the Inspector General of Police and Director General of State Protection Services to maintain sufficient security during political rallies to avert any breakdown of the peace while expressing sympathy to the attack victims and hoping for their speedy recovery.