The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the Presidency have traded words over the 10-day vacation President Muhammadu Buhari is embarking on starting from Friday.
The 10-day vacation was announced by the Presidency on Wednesday and will be spent in London.
But the leading opposition party, PDP, has raised the alarm that the vacation was a grand plan to exonerate him from alleged planned political illegalities, forceful invasion and mayhem about to be visited on the polity and particularly, the National Assembly.
The Presidency, in a swift reaction, said Buhari was a democrat who would not violate the right of anyone.
Besides, the Presidency said he had handed over to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo before starting his vacation.
It described the PDP as a group desperate for power and power alone.
It said that the PDP was afraid its allegedly corrupt past would be reopened in the ongoing war against corruption, hence was doing everything to wrest power.
“Claims by the failing Peoples Democratic Party that President Muhammadu Buhari had taken a 10-day leave in order to leave the stage for illegal and unconstitutional actions by the administration are both ridiculous and a hollow narrative to garner cheap sympathy,” the Presidency said in a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Mallam Garba Shehu.
In the statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, which drew the reaction of the Presidency, PDP alleged that it was aware of plots already perfected in a meeting, on Wednesday night, between the Presidency and some compromised All Progressives Congress (APC) senators to forcefully reconvene the Senate with protection from security agencies, with a view to impeach Senate President Bukola Saraki and Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu.
The PDP said it knew that the desperation to illegally take control of the National Assembly was part of the design to undermine the nation’s democratic institutions and completely foist a dictatorial regime.
It said that the alleged planned invasion was also a bid to cover the atrocious and humongous corruption of the Buhari administration, which the National Assembly was said to be set to expose.
“The PDP has been reliably informed about how these APC senators, especially members of the Buhari Parliamentary Support Group (BPSG), have been provided with huge sums of money, illegally lifted from repatriated funds, to carry out this nefarious act under the guise of urgent need to approve funds for the 2019 general elections.
“It is clear that President Buhari and the APC are hugely terrified and distressed by the gale of defections from their fold and have resorted to underhand methods, threats and intimidation, irrespective of the damage being inflicting on the polity.
“Having been demeaned by the widespread condemnation of the recent siege on the residences of the Senate President and Deputy Senate President, in addition to the invasion of the Benue State House of Assembly in a failed attempt to impeach Governor Samuel Ortom and forcefully take over the state, President Buhari is now jetting out of the country so as to appear innocent and oblivious of the political terrors about to be unleashed on the National Assembly.
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“This is the same leader who, in 2014, applauded the defection of PDP members, including then leaders of the National Assembly, into his APC, describing the movement, then, as “good for democracy.”
“Today, his administration is hounding and harassing citizens for daring to defect from his failed party,” the party said.
PDP also accused the president of planning to enmesh the 2019 general election in controversy by asking for virement of funds already approved in the 2018 budget for development projects instead of sending a fresh supplementary budget for the election.
