The Senior Special Assistant to the President, Garba Shehu, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari did not promise an absolute crime-free Nigeria while campaigning for the presidency in 2015.
Shehu stated this on Sunday while reacting to criticism triggered by the death of several persons from the herdsmen-farmers crisis and other security issues in some parts of the country.
“I think that nobody, no politician should try to deceive Nigerians by saying that there is a country without lawlessness,” he said during his appearance on Channels Television’s SundayPolitics.
“Even when he campaigned – the President, yes, committed to ridding the country of terror but he would never have said that this country would be 100 per cent without criminality,” he added.
Shehu, however, said that the Federal Government is working hard to ensure the safety of the lives and property of Nigerians in all parts of the country.
As part of efforts to find a lasting solution to the killings, he further gave a brief on President Buhari’s scheduled visit to Benue State on Monday, March 12, having visited Taraba …
The presidential aide recalled that a statement was issued to the effect that the President was embarking on the visits after he had received all the reports he had commissioned.
He added that President Buhari believed it was time to go around and see things on the ground and make important decisions on what to follow.
On the President’s engagement in Benue, Shehu said: “The programme, as it stands now, is as we had it in Taraba. There will be a meeting of stakeholders in the State House.
“The President will listen to all the parties in the conflict and thereafter, he will deliver his own homily and, of course, sympathies to the people over the unfortunate losses of persons and property.”
He further faulted claims that the President’s visit to the state is politically motivated, saying his principal was engaging in more of acting than talking to stop the killings.
“I would have thought that if he had intended to inject politics into it, he would have been on the plane the morning after the incident,” Shehu said.
“But he chose to act, rather than to talk and as you have seen yourself over this period of time, there was intervention by law enforcement, there was intervention by NEMA and aid agencies.”
The President’s spokesman further took a swipe at a group of people whom he accused of leveraging the tragic incidents to score political points.
According to him, “They are just celebrating and exalting over all of these matters instead of coming together so that we can solve the problems.”
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