The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned what it described as attempts by President Muhammadu Buhari to politicise and compromise the nation’s military by dragging in Service Chiefs to attend and participate in his re-election campaign rally.
A statement issued yesterday by PDP spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the participation of the Service Chiefs in Buhari’s campaign rally, tagged: “Next Level”, was completely unacceptable and objectionable.
The opposition party maintained that the action sent a very wrong signal to the public regarding the expected professionalism, neutrality and detachment of the institution of the military from partisan politics and cannot be justified under any guise.
“Such participation in partisan politics is a dangerous dimension as it will not only erode the confidence which the citizens repose in the military ahead of the election, but also a recipe for discord and partisan disagreements within the rank and file of the military, result in mutual suspicion in the force and whittle its effectiveness in defending the nation.
“The PDP knows that President Buhari, in the desperation to rig and foist himself on the nation in the 2019 election, will stop at nothing in his attempt to compromise and desecrate our institutions. But doing so on the military is a clear invitation to crisis and derailment of our democracy,” the party added.
The PDP insisted that the state and particularly its apparatus of power must be separated from partisan politics and cautioned the President not to further divide the nation and set the people on collision course with security forces, as such will spell doom for the nation.