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

Ahead of next year’s general elections, the
ruling party 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 politi­
cally 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 in­
terests.
“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.”