Abiola: Buhari showing political desperation, hypocrisy ahead of 2019 election – PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party on Wednesday described the national honour to be conferred on Abiola by President Muhammad Buhari as a show of a political desperation ahead of the 2019 presidential election.

PDP said that President Buhari’s action merely sought to use the name and person of Abiola to gain a political capital and was not out of genuine reverence and recognition for him.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday and signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, the party recalled that President Buhari, who was serving in the military administration of General Sani Abacha during the travails of Abiola, did not associate either by words or actions with the late winner of June 12 election.

Ologbondiyan further stated that history did not record President Buhari as sympathetic to the Abiola’s family when his wife, Kudirat, was gruesomely murdered by the agents of a government which President Buhari served.

He said, “It is, therefore, a sign of political desperation for President Buhari to seek to use Chief Abiola’s name as a tool to sway Nigerians in less than  12 months to an election where he (President Buhari) is seeking a second term.

“It is also shocking that the respectable grave of Abiola can be dishonoured by granting a posthumous award on him along with someone who denounced the June 12 mandate and preferred the company of his (Abiola’s) traducers.

“Even those who now masquerade as change agents were opposed to the naming of the University of Lagos after Chief Abiola.

“If President Buhari genuinely wants to honour Chief Abiola,  he should do so by ending all anti-democratic proclivities of his administration and allow for the rule of law and respect for our constitution.”

“The PDP, therefore, urges President Buhari to shed his desperate actions in his quest to win the 2019 presidential election as Nigerians can no longer be deceived by such antics.”