Buhari urged to ignore Rivers PDP’s allegation against army, DSS

SENATOR Magnus Abe has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to disregard a petition by the Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the March 28, 2015 National Assembly elections, which alleged and pointedly accused him and some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) of polarising the Nigerian Army and the Directorate of State Security (DSS).

The election tribunal sitting in Port Harcourt to hear petitions filed by APC candidates in the March 28 National Assembly elections held in Rivers State had summoned the army and the DSS to testify before it.

Abe said that the PDP’s petition was written in bad faith and a cheap attempt to mislead the President and the general public on what actually transpired at the tribunal and the surrounding circumstances.

He added that the petition was calculated to ridicule and paint in bad light the highly revered institution of the Nigerian Army and the office of the DSS.

In a letter to the President, Abe said: “For the record, it is pertinent to clearly state that what transpired at the tribunal was that the tribunal, at the request of the petitioners (myself and other petitioners), issued a subpoena directed at the Chief of Army Staff (or any of his designated officers) and the Director General of the DSS (or any of his designated officers) to appear before it and give evidence of what they witnessed during the conduct of the National Assembly election in Rivers State on 28 March, 2015, being some of the security agencies that provided security at the said elections.”

He said that it was mischievous and indeed unreasonable for anybody, especially the PDP, Rivers State to cast baseless aspersion on the gallant officers of the Nigerian Army and the DSS, saying: “It would have been foolhardy for the Chief of Army Staff and the DG DSS to refuse to comply with the order of the tribunal.”

Abe described the PDP petition as just another one in a series of such letters/petitions geared towards whipping up unfavourable sentiments targeted against members of the APC.