The All Progressives Congress (APC) have called on President Goodluck Jonathan to accept full responsibility over the missing girls saga and stop blaming the Governor of the State, Kashim Shettima.
Jonathan’s administration blames Shettima over the abduction because the Borno state governor disregarded several warnings from Federal and WAEC officials not to conduct exams anywhere in the State with exception of Maiduguri.
Interim National Chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande spoke on the events during a news conference in Lagos on Sunday.
He said, “Today(Sunday), we call on President Jonathan to earn his epaulette as the Commander-in-Chief and stop passing the buck. We remind him that as the Chief Security Officer of the nation, he cannot and must not pass the buck.
“We remind him that having imposed emergency rule on Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, he has assumed full responsibility for the security of lives and property in those states, and that it is disingenuous of him to point accusing fingers at the governors of those states, who cannot even move around their states freely without clearance.
“Even without the Boko Haram crisis, the nation ran itself as if on auto-pilot. The Jonathan administration did little and depended on the ingenuity of the Nigerian people to fend for themselves and cover up governmental shortcomings.
“However, a crisis has come which no amount of private ingenuity can resolve. Only government can answer this call. The time has come for strategy and action. The time has come but government has been found sorely wanting.”
Responding to Akande, PDP spokesman, Chief Olisa Metuh called on the APC to stop playing politics with the incident.
“It is troubling that at a time when all people of goodwill and good sense now speak unequivocally against terrorism in our land, some in the APC still persists in seeking political capital out of the pains of the missing schoolgirls or other incidents of terrorism.
“This is not only shameful but disgusting, disgraceful and distasteful. It is this gloating that has made many doubt the sincerity of the APC in the fight against terrorism in our country,” the party said in a statement.
“Nigeria is bigger than any person or group of persons. We shall therefore not relent but continue to guard our unity and ensure that our determination to live in peace as one people under God is not undermined in anyway whatsoever,” it added.