Abuja Bomb Blast: APC Calls For National Security Summit, Decries Attempt By PDP To Implicate Opposition

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned the atrocious bomb blast that left 71 people dead in Abuja on Monday, with a call to the Federal Government to urgently convene a national stakeholders’ security summit to help find a lasting solution to the spate of mindless killings in the country.

APC in a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, expressed shock and sadness at the savagery of the attack, while condoling with the families of the dead and prayed for a quick recovery for the injured.

APC noted that it was evident all efforts so far to tackle the insurgency in the country had not yielded the desired outcome, which means that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP-led Federal Government lacked the capacity and had clearly run out of ideas on how to tackle the violence.

“It is time for new thinking, new ideas to stop this insurgency before it consumes all of us. The attack, right on the outskirts of Abuja which has been spared this kind of spectacular strike since 2011 means those behind it are getting bolder and bolder, and it’s time to stop them”, it said.

The main opposition party said in the national interest and in the spirit of bi-partisanship, it was willing and ready to be part of any positive efforts to end the daily loss of lives and the damage to property that seemed to have hit an all new high since the beginning of this year.

In the same vein, APC has described as despicable, the ruling PDP’s attempt to trivialize a very serious issue and make the opposition the fall guy for its own egregious failure.

The party was reacting to a statement by PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in the aftermath of the bomb blast in Abuja, which he fingered governors and leading lights of the APC as masterminds of the bombings in the country to discredit the President Goodluck Jonathan administration.

“The PDP and the government it leads at the centre should realize that this issue is beyond politics and partisanship, and should reach out to other stakeholders to help find a way to end the insurgency that has now defied all measures, including a state of emergency.

“Trying to blame the opposition for the attack, as the harebrained PDP has irresponsibly done even when the bodies of the victims are still lying in the morgue, cannot advance a genuine push to end the insurgency”, the party said.

It wondered whether the PDP’s ignoble accusation was part of a sinister motive to call the dog a bad name just to hang it.

“PDP is so desperate that it will stop at nothing to plunge Nigeria in to chaos just to achieve its objective of clinging to power at all costs. Its baseless and infantile accusation, at a time of great national pain, may be a ploy to instigate a clampdown against the opposition.

“We are, therefore, calling on all our members, and indeed, all the good people of Nigeria, to be vigilant in the days ahead”, the party said.