The Presidency, on Thursday, faulted the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over its claim that President Muhammadu Buhari’s scheduled trip to London on Friday was to exonerate him from a planned invasion of the Senate by his loyalists.
Recall that President Buhari had on Wednesday written the leadership of National Assembly informing them of his scheduled 10 working days visit to London for vacation.
Reacting to the announcement on Thursday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) claimed that the President’s’s “two-week vacation in London was designed as an alibi to exonerate him from planned political illegalities, forceful invasion and mayhem about to be visited on the polity and particularly, the National Assembly.”
The opposition party said it was “aware of plots already perfected in a meeting, on Wednesday night, between the the President and some compromised All Progressives Congress (APC) senators, who are now in the minority, to forcefully reconvene the Senate with protection from security agencies, with a view to impeach the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki.
“We know that the desperation to illegally take control of the National Assembly is part of the design to undermine our democratic institutions and completely foist a dictatorial regime on our nation,” the PDP added.
But reacting to the opposition party’s claims, the Presidency, in a statement by President Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said: “Claims by the failing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that President Muhammadu Buhari had taken a 10-day leave in order to leave the stage for illegal and unconstitutional actions by the administration are both ridiculous and a hollow narrative to garner cheap sympathy.
“That the President, himself a sworn democrat had handed power to his deputy without compulsion is itself exemplary and innovative, something that the PDP failed to produce in their sixteen years of monumental mismanagement and sadistic plunder.