The Presidency on Tuesday berated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for latching onto “false stories” about the stoning of President Muhammadu Buhari’s convoy in Kano State.
Reports emerged on Monday night that angry youths and hoodlums hauled stones at the president’s helicopter during projects commissioning in Kano State.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, the PDP alleged that attack on President Buhari was a plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to trigger violence in the country and disrupt next month’s elections.
However, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, who reacted to the PDP’s remark in a statement in Abuja, insisted that the crowd seen in a widely shared video footage comprised “innocent children sponsored by politicians and terrorist sympathizers.”
The statement read: “The divisive rhetoric of an opposition in a futile attempt to malign the image of the President and the candidates of the All Progressives Congress in the coming elections, and its desperate wedge-driving activities to cause a division between the party and the government is not what will give them victory.
“A so-called leading opposition party that controls 14 states, going into elections with eight or nine of the states in tow should look inwards to see why their campaign is flagging and destined to fail.
“Their defeat is a foretold story by many discerning individuals.”
Garba added that the president was being treated to a banquet at the Government House Lounge after he had commissioned the projects when a fight broke out in Hotoro between the local road transport authorities, the Kano Road Transport Authority, and thugs hired by an unnamed group.
“The stone-pelters as seen from the video in the fight against the traffic police were innocent children sponsored by politicians and terrorist sympathizers. There is no place for violence in a democracy.
“The PDP should use the opportunity of the electioneering to put their point of view in a democracy.
“When problems can be resolved through talks, there is no place for stone-pelting, arson and unruly behaviour as we are witnessing in some of the campaigns.
“It is equally unhealthy for society and it becomes the duty of political, social and religious leaders to correctly inform the misled youngsters to shun the path of violence which is inimical to their own future.
“Lastly to say that the President has not lost his command and respect in Kano.
“The President was in the state to work on the development, safety and security of the lives of common citizens and the happy thing about it was that the good people of Kano State were appreciative of him for the progress the state and the nation at large are making under him.”
