Kano Deaths: PDP Demands Investigation, Calls for Presidential Visit… Berates Ganduje For Abandoning Governance, says PDP
▪ Your sinister intention for Nigeria won’t happen – APC tells PDP
By Kola Ologbondiyan, National Publicity Secretary, PDP
Kano Deaths: PDP Demands Investigation, Calls for Presidential Visit… Berates Ganduje For Abandoning Governance
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded an immediate investigation into the disturbing mass death in Kano state, urging a Presidential visit to the state, where no fewer than 640 citizens had reportedly died under mysterious circumstances in the last one week.
The party’s call is predicated on conflicting reports emanating from Kano State on the cause of the sudden deaths particularly at this time that our nation is battling with the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
The PDP notes with dismay that the Buhari Presidency had failed to take any concrete step on this frightening development, but is, as usual, waiting to be prodded to stand up to the demand of the office and proceed to Kano state to identity with the people, find solution and contain the ugly situation.
The party describes as lamentable that President Muhammadu Buhari, who promised to lead from the front, and who recently took up the toga of ECOWAS COVID-19 Response Champion, had rather receded into the safety of Aso Villa and failed to promptly activate any concrete and visible action to investigate and arrest the situation in Kano, where Nigerians are dying in their hundreds.
The PDP described the situation as yet another manifestation of leadership failure and insensitivity of the Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration to the plight of Nigerians at critical moments.
Our party holds that the situation in Kano demands an immediate Presidential visit and investigation at the very high level. Those dying in Kano are Nigerians and must not be abandoned. The development deserves an utmost Presidential attention to avoid further escalation.
This is particularly imperative as it is evident that Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and his APC-led administration in Kano State are totally incompetent and have become overwhelmed after failing to take appropriate measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus or whatever medical situation that has taken over the state.
When Ganduje, who is being dogged by allegations of corruption, was expected to ensure compliance to preventive measures, he rather chose to abandon governance and spent executive time pursuing controversial extraneous issues that have no direct benefits on the lives of the people.
It is even more ludicrous that Governor Ganduje chose to politicize the health issues in his state by resorting to unnecessary denials and pecuniary concerns.
Such anti-people approach to governance is always symptomatic of a leadership that did not emanate from the mandate of the people.
Furthermore, it is left for Governor Ganduje to explain why he failed to contain his daughter, Dr. Amina Umar Ganduje, whose reported overbearing attitude in the Kano state COVID-19 task force allegedly contributed to the crippling of the activities of those charged with taking preventive measures.
Our party therefore calls on Nigerians to hold Governor Ganduje and his APC administration responsible for the development in Kano State which had worsened due to the failure of both Kano state and the Federal Government to promptly investigate and contain the situation.
Consequently, the PDP charges President Buhari to immediately wade in and arrest the situation in Kano without any further delay.
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Your sinister intention for Nigeria won’t happen-APC tells PDP
By Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, National Publicity Secretary, All Progressives Congress (APC)
The All Progressives Congress (APC) condemns in very strong and unequivocal terms the latest attempt by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rubbish the commendable efforts of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in tackling the scourge of Covid-19 pandemic currently ravaging the world.
This is yet another infantile and desperate attempt by the opposition party to play petty politics with a serious matter of national and international importance.
The latest baseless accusation by the PDP that the APC-led government has not lived up to its responsibility of protecting the people of Kano State against the backdrop of some deaths recorded in the state is a case in point.
This allegation is not only baseless, but very irresponsible. It is false in its entirety.
Shockingly, while all well-meaning organisations, home and abroad, and individuals are putting in positive shifts to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has rather chosen to dance on the graves of the unfortunate Nigerians that have been killed by the disease.
PDP has this rare opportunity to stand up to be counted by making positive contributions to end the scourge, but this opposition party thinks this is the time to politicise Coronavirus cases and deaths, particularly in Kano State.
We invite the PDP to borrow a leaf from the patriotic efforts being made by the cross-party platform, the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), who has kept politics aside and joined the President Buhari government in jointly, proactively and frontally combating the pandemic which is currently a threat to our very existence. The PDP must understand that only the living can play politics.
The APC would, once again, refresh the memory of the PDP, since the party appears irredeemably lost in its present, unenviable state of idleness and irrelevance.
Weeks before the pandemic hit Nigeria, this administration had started taking practical steps in preparation for it.
The PDP may claim to be unaware, but emergency operations centres have been established in states to serve as coordination platforms and are networked to a national incident coordination centre. Many states are now better equipped and prepared to coordinate within and across their borders in combating the coronavirus. From just about four testing laboratory centres, NCDC has 15 testing centres as at today with testing capacity increasing to over 3000 daily from just a few hundreds weeks ago.
While it is clear that no single country, including the advanced nations, boasts adequate capacity to respond at once to this pandemic, and are all working hard to scale up capacity to contain the spread of Corvid-19 and in the same vein making efforts to find a cure for it, the APC-led government has not been found wanting in protecting the lives of all Nigerians, except for PDP that is incurably irrational.
Nigeria has received commendations from bodies like the World Health Organisation (WHO), the European Union. The Presidents of West African countries under the aegis of ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government have appointed President Muhammadu Buhari as Champion of the COVID-19 response. Our successes achieved so far in our Coronavirus response happened without the insidious prodding of the PDP.
When the PDP held a rally in Oyo State in a most irresponsible manner and against public outcry, at a period the Corvid-19 cases had already been recorded in Nigeria, perhaps it was a deliberate effort by the opposition party to jeopardise the lives of the people of this country. It is not surprising that the Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, who was making a joke of the pandemic got no cautionary words from PDP. We may never know the damage caused by the ill-advised rally held by PDP in Oyo State. But it suits the opposition party to attack the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje to score cheap political points.
To make the matter worse, quite unfortunately, the PDP is asking President Buhari to embark on a state visit to Kano. The opposition party believes that there should be a Presidential movement to anywhere in this country at this period, least of a densely populated city like Kano. Have they suddenly forgotten what it means to have the President visit Kano State at a period like this that requires social distancing and when much of the country is under a lockdown order?
We urge the PDP to come clean on why it is asking the President to embark on a state visit now.
Nigerians should ask PDP if it is praying that the whole of Kano and, indeed, Nigeria be swarming with Corvid-19 cases and corpses in order to fit into its known and unpatriotic wishes against our beloved country.