Abuja bomb blast: PDP accuses APC of culpability

The Peoples Democratic Party on Monday accused the opposition All Progressives Party of culpability in the bomb blast which killed over 70 people in Nyanya, Abuja,
on Monday. While condemning the act which it described as barbaric, monstrous and extremely wicked, the PDP said the attacks were politically motivated. National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, said this in a statement, in Abuja. The statement partly read, “The PDP weeps. We are indeed grief-stricken. Our hearts go out to the bereaved, especially those who have been orphaned and widowed and those now deprived of their bread winners by this evil act. We share in their pain, their anguish and their loss and pray that those behind their grief must not escape justice.” Metuh said the attacks could not be justified under any guise adding that it was the handiwork of an opposition desperate to undermine and discredit the present administration and make the nation ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan. He said, “We stand by our earlier statements that these attacks on our people are politically-motivated by unpatriotic persons, especially those in the APC, who have been making utterances and comments, promoting violence and blood-letting as a means of achieving political control. “Nigerians are also aware of utterances by certain APC governors which have been aimed at undermining our security forces and emboldening insurgents against the people.” In response, the APC through its Interim National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, accused the ruling party of trying to give the opposition a bad name in order to hang it. The party described as despicable the PDP’s attempt to trivialise a very serious issue and make the opposition the fall guy for its own egregious failure. In a statement he signed, Mohammed said, “The PDP and the government it leads at the centre should realise that this issue is beyond politics and partisanship, and should reach out to other stakeholders to help find a way to end the insurgency that has now defied all measures, including a state of emergency. “Trying to blame the opposition for the attack, as the harebrained PDP has irresponsibly done even when the bodies of the victims are still lying in the morgue, cannot advance a genuine push to end the insurgency.’’