PDP condemns attack on Senator Urhoghide in Benin

By Lateef Ibrahim Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described as ‘completely inexcusable’ the attack on Senator Matthew Urhoghide by All Progressives Congress (APC) youths at the Benin Airport on Friday.
The PDP said that it was miffed that the APC has degenerated to the level of misdirecting its youths and unleashing them to attack and mete out violence on law-abiding citizens including a senator of the Federal Republic.
The party, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said, “We are equally irked that the attack happened in the full glare of high-ranking police officers in the state, who did nothing to protect the lawmaker but adopted an aloofness that emboldened the APC youths”.
Continuing, the party said, “We note that such brazen attack is recipe for wide-scale violence. But for the restraint exhibited by the PDP youths and supporters of Senator Urhoghide, there would have been a breakdown of law and order at the airport and which might even extend to other parts of the state.
“The PDP restates our stand in commending Senator Urhoghide for his courage in standing for the Nigerian people to move the motion for the Senate to investigate President Muhammadu Buhari for alleged violations of our constitution.
“The fact that the Senate and of course the House of Representatives voted in favour of the investigation shows that the motion was in tandem with the mood of the nation as well as the wishes and aspirations of the Nigerian people.
“The attack on Senator Urhoghide, therefore, shows the intolerance and deployment of unpatriotic acts by agents of the APC, including the invasion of the Senate and forceful removal of the mace, to intimidate the parliament and destroy our democracy.
“The APC must however come to terms with the fact that no amount of attack and intimidation will stop Nigerians in their determination to vote out President Buhari from office, come 2019,” it said.