The Senior Special Assistant to the President, Garba Shehu, has
said that President Muhammadu Buhari did not promise an absolute crime-free
Nigeria while campaigning for the presidency in 2015.
Shehu stated this
on Sunday while reacting to criticism triggered by the death of several persons
from the herdsmen-farmers crisis and other security issues in some parts of the
country.
“I think that nobody, no politician should try to deceive Nigerians by saying
that there is a country without lawlessness,” he said during his appearance on
Channels Television’s SundayPolitics.
“Even when he
campaigned – the President, yes, committed to ridding the country of terror but
he would never have said that this country would be 100 per cent without
criminality,” he added.
Shehu, however,
said that the Federal Government is working hard to ensure the safety of the
lives and property of Nigerians in all parts of the country.
As part of
efforts to find a lasting solution to the killings, he further gave a brief on
President Buhari’s scheduled visit to Benue State on Monday, March 12, having
visited Taraba …
The presidential aide recalled that a statement was issued to the effect that
the President was embarking on the visits after he had received all the reports
he had commissioned.
He added that
President Buhari believed it was time to go around and see things on the ground
and make important decisions on what to follow.
On the
President’s engagement in Benue, Shehu said: “The programme, as it stands now,
is as we had it in Taraba. There will be a meeting of stakeholders in the State
House.
“The President
will listen to all the parties in the conflict and thereafter, he will deliver
his own homily and, of course, sympathies to the people over the unfortunate
losses of persons and property.”
He further faulted claims that the President’s visit to the state is politically
motivated, saying his principal was engaging in more of acting than talking to
stop the killings.
“I would have
thought that if he had intended to inject politics into it, he would have been
on the plane the morning after the incident,” Shehu said.
“But he chose to
act, rather than to talk and as you have seen yourself over this period of
time, there was intervention by law enforcement, there was intervention by NEMA
and aid agencies.”
The President’s
spokesman further took a swipe at a group of people whom he accused of
leveraging the tragic incidents to score political points.
According to him,
“They are just celebrating and exalting over all of these matters instead of
coming together so that we can solve the problems.”
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