Don’t drag military into politics of 2015, PDP tells APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has admonished the main opposition party , the All Progressives Congress (APC) to refrain from mat­ters of Army discipline, which it noted were entirely within the purview of mili­tary authorities.

Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, in a statement yesterday expressed concern over the recent re­marks attributed to Rivers State Governor and the Direc­tor General of the Presidential Campaign Organisation of the APC, Rotimi Amaechi on the scary security situation in the North-East.

According to Metuh, “the PDP will refrain from com­menting on issues of military discipline, its command and control procedures during this campaign period or even after, as we believe that it is danger­ous to politicise issues per­taining to the country’s Armed Forces.

“We will not join anyone or political party in the unpatriot­ic act of trying to subordinate national interest to any politi­cally and selfishly motivated interest.

“We call on Nigerians to condemn the dishonourable tactic of the opposition desir­ous to gain contemptible po­litical capital by dragging the internal affairs of the military into the arena of politics.

“Across half a century of our nationhood, the Nige­rian military has remained the major catalyst and the last defence line in the unity and oneness of the nation.

“This sacred role which it has successfully been playing must be jealously guarded and its integrity not made subject to the vagaries of political in­terests.

“One of the major visions of the founding fathers of the PDP, which its leadership has successfully fulfilled, is the re­turn of professionalism to the military and the re-channeling of its efforts to squarely face its constitutional roles. Ni­geria’s democracy and the people have been beneficiaries of this insulation of our armed forces from politics.

“This painstaking pro­cess, in which we have been involved, has been respon­sible for the rebuilding and re-equipping of the military to confront the current security challenges.”