President Muhammadu Buhari’s led government has responded to the top opposition party, People’s Democratic Party, PDP, saying kidnapping and banditry are not federal offences in Nigeria.
Daily Post has reported that the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed disclosed this while addressing the media on Tuesday.
Lai Muhammed, while responding to the PDP’s criticism of the government, said it is surprising that a party that directed the affairs of this nation for 16 years “does not know that kidnapping and banditry are not federal offences.”
He further told the party to hold responsible the states, including those being controlled by it and to ensure rigorous prosecution of arrested kidnappers and bandits.
The minister stressed that the opposition is only playing cheap politics by making such very serious accusations against the President and his government.
His statement reads,
“For example, the PDP said the government has refused to engage, and that we were running a ‘government of exclusion’, and not engaging stakeholders.”
Lai Mohammed debunked the PDP’s claims, insisting that the current administration has consistently engaged the masses on topical national issues, like security, the fight against corruption, terrorism, infrastructure and farmer-herder conflict.
He, therefore, cited the Town Hall Meetings that held in Kaduna as one of the latest of such.
