By Sadiq Umar – The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Saturday tackled President Muhammadu Buhari over his comment on illegal migrants to Europe, describing it as insensitive.
The party said Mr. Buhari should address the underlining cause of illegal migration, adding that more Nigerians have been trapped in detention and slave camps in various parts of the world in the last two years of his administration.
While playing host to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, Mr. Buhari said Nigerians who take the illegal route of going through the Sahara and the Mediterranean Sea do so at their own peril.
“We have made it very clear that we do not support anything illegal and anybody who feels this country does not offer him what he should to be offered as a citizen and decide to defy the desert and the Mediterranean is doing it at his own risk,” the president had said.
But while reacting to the president’s statement on Saturday, PDP’s spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, described the comment an “incendiary statement,” blaming the federal government of President Buhari for the increase spate of illegal migration in the country.
“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement to German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, that Nigerians caught up in their attempt to illegally enter Europe, are on their own, further exposes him as an insensitive leader, who cares less about the plights of his compatriots,” Mr. Ologbondiyan said in a statement weekend.
He said: “While the PDP does not, in any way, support illegal migrations, our party holds that such does not warrant incendiary statement against our citizens by no less a person than the President, who should be seeking for ways to solve the problem.”
“Is it not disturbing to Mr President that reports by Nigerian Immigration Services showed that many more Nigerians have been trapped in detention and slave camps in various parts of the world,” the statement continued.
“It has, therefore, become clearer that there is no way our nation can survive another four years under a leadership such as the Buhari-led APC administration, hence the determination by Nigerians to rally on the platform of the repositioned PDP to throw up a competent President to effectively pilot the affairs of our nation, come 2019.”
