The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has alleged that killings by Boko Haram will continue if President Muhammadu Buhari is re-elected.

Atiku, in a statement last night by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, accused the federal government of wasting valuable time and resources on Buhari’s re-election campaign “while neglecting the Boko Haram crisis that has continued to consume the lives of innocent citizens”.

Reacting to Thursday’s attack on two military formations in Borno State, Atiku said if Buhari had spent half the resources and time devoted to his re-election bid on the Boko Haram crisis, it would have been resolved and hundreds of precious lives would have been saved.

‘‘There is no gainsaying that Buhari has got his priorities wrong and has acted in a manner that suggests total disregard for human lives. Or how else does one explain a situation where citizens, including security agents, are being hacked down daily by the Boko Haram insurgents and all the government is doing is to waste time and resources on an undeserving re-election bid?’’

“Two days earlier, on December 25, 2018, 14 Nigerian army and police personnel were killed in an ambush by Boko Haram. It is now apparent that those saddled with ensuring the security of lives and property in the country are grossly incapable of doing so, the current APC government lacks what it takes to prosecute the Boko Haram war with the kind of vigour and precision that it deserves,” he said.

He urged Buhari to probe reported massive corruption, running into billions of dollars, in the purchase by senior military officers of major military capital goods and military consumables, including the troops’ own food.

He alleged that it was strange that Buhari could not tackle corruption in the hardware procurement process despite being in custody of a report prepared by a committee he set up to investigate corruption in military procurement from 2007 to 2015.

He said Buhari and his National Security Adviser were aware that copies of the report were beyond their reach and could be released unofficially if further attempts were made “to silence members of the committee or those with knowledge of the massive corruption which took place and is still taking in time.”

Reacting through his spokesman, Femi Adesina, the president said Atiku’s claims showed that he was privy to the Boko Haram insurgency

“It is those who know about Boko Haram killings who can make such a claim. It is those who are privy to Boko Haram killings that can make such claims. So, anybody that makes such claims then knows more than meet the eye about the Boko Haram.”

•Sourced from a Daily Trust report

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