The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) strongly believes, not suspects, the opposition, specifically, the All Progressive Congress (APC), was behind the bombing of a busy bus station at Nyanya, on the outskirts of Abuja, on Monday. Over 70 persons were confirmed to have died and 131 injured in the biggest single attack yet near the Nigerian capital. The PDP wrong footed the security agencies whose specialty it is to identify a crime and those behind it.
A statement put out by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief OlisaMetuh, few hours after the bombs exploded, said that the attack in Nyanya was “politically motivated by unpatriotic persons, especially those in the All Progressives Congress (APC) who have been making utterances and comments, promoting violence and blood-letting as a means of achieving political control.
“Nigerians are also aware of utterances by certain APC governors which have been aimed at undermining our security forces and emboldening insurgents against the people.Those who have been promoting violence through their utterances can now see the monster they have created. They can now see the end product of their comments – a country flowing daily with the blood of the innocent.
“The question is how do they feel when they see the mangled and blood-soaked bodies of their victims? How do they feel when they hear the voices of the dying and the injured? Of course, they feel nothing. Their hearts have been hardened and they are embittered by the fact that they have been rejected by the people. They are bitter because the people have chosen to rally round the government they love and voted for; but must they choose the path of violence and bloodletting as a response to the wishes and aspirations of the people?”
On its part, the PDP, according to Metuh, “weeps. We are indeed grief-stricken. Our hearts go out to the bereaved, especially those who have been orphaned and widowed and those now deprived of their bread winners by this evil act.” Really? We do not think there is genuine weeping on the part of governing party. What it has done is to exploit a national tragedy to gain political leverage over the opposition. This smacks of political sadism.
This is a time when the whole nation should stand together in mourning and to comfort our compatriots who have lost loved ones and breadwinners. We should not cause them more hurt by speculating about those who carried out that attack on Monday. If PDP was sure of its information, the right thing to do was to hand it over to the security forces to investigate. Why the hurry to go public with intelligence you are not too sure of, except the aim is mischief making.
The problem is that the police and other security agencies now have their work cut out on this one, with Metuh’s false lead. Misinformation is a serious crime under our law the land. This is why he should be punished appropriately.
