The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government is “persecuting and not prosecuting” former National Security Adviser (NSA) Col. Sambo Dasuki because of 2019 presidency.

The PDP said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and its leaders are afraid that Dasuki, given his vast political and security network, may be harbouring a presidential ambition considering that the PDP has zoned its 2019 presidential ticket to the north.

PDP in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said the APC is obviously seeking to destroy the PDP so that it could push through Buhari’s second tenure in 2019 without opposition from the PDP.

“The PDP is conversant with the sinister plan by the APC-led federal government to completely decimate our party by raking up all manner of allegations of corruption against the Goodluck Jonathan administration and leaders of the PDP with a view to taking them to court on orchestrated charges.

“This has also confirmed our concern that this is the reason the federal government is persecuting and not prosecuting, Col. Sambo Dasuki. The APC and its leaders fear that Dasuki, given his vast political and security network, may be harbouring a presidential ambition, more so that the PDP has zoned its presidential ticket to the north.

“We are aware that President Buhari has directed security agencies to be more vicious in dealing with our members and has continued to subtly coerce the Judiciary to convict those being charged to court. But what gives us joy is that President Buhari is not God and we will not worship him,” the party said.

The PDP also said it sympathised with Buhari and APC leaders over their “inability” to accept constructive criticisms of their administration, saying it was unfortunate that the APC and its leaders, “who gleefully and unjustifiably poured invectives” on former President Goodluck Jonathan in the guise of playing the role of an opposition party, would now not want to condone criticisms.

The PDP said the APC as an opposition party denigrated the office and person of former President Goodluck Jonathan by “wrongly” depicting him as ‘clueless and incompetent’ stressing that the PDP remained the most decent, mature and constructive opposition party in Nigeria's democracy evidenced by what it termed great respect for the person and exalted office of President Muhammadu Buhari.

It said it must be commended for what it described as civil, responsible, mature and issue-based opposition it has played, adding that the entire world listened to President Buhari during the Wednesday’s media chat and went away with different impressions.

“During the Goodluck Jonathan presidency, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, while in the saddle as interim Deputy National Secretary of the APC, in a post on his twitter page, described President Jonathan as ‘lazy, docile, incompetent, clueless, hopeless and useless leader.’ Other APC leaders made raining abuses on Jonathan a past time.

“We did and came up with the theme of our initial reaction that portrayed him very appropriately as a tyrant. And for the purpose of clarity, a tyrant is a ruler who has complete power over a country and who uses the power in a cruel and unfair way, which was why we recommended the suspension of the operation of the constitution so he can rule for the next four years as a maximum ruler,” the PDP said.

•Text courtesy of Sunday Trust. Photo shows Sambo Dasuki.

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