BY REBECCA AJANI
THE Peoples Democratic Party (South-West) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to seize the opportunity of his 78th birthday to ruminate over what it described as his past misdeeds, especially against the South West, and seek restitution.
The party, while congratulating the President in a statement on Wednesday, said God had kept him alive to attain the age so that he could seek forgiveness.
In the statement, signed by the PDP Zonal Director of Media and Publicity, Lere Olayinka, the party said the occasion of his 78th birthday should be used to seek forgiveness for the “sins” Buhari committed against South-West people, noting that this was better than celebrating in the midst of his own people, whose over 300 children were being held captive by terrorists.
Listing some of the President’s supposed sins against South West, the PDP said, “He frustrated the progress of the South-West, abandoned the region when he was Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund under late General Sani Abacha and has done nothing for the region since 2015.
“The Metroline project was scrapped by Buhari at a loss of over $78 million to the Lagos tax payers. If Buhari had not cancelled that project, transportation in Lagos would have been better than it is now…
“It is on record that in 1984, he impounded the Nigerian passport of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and prevented him from visiting his doctors at Mayo Clinic, Rochester Minnesota, USA. The passport was only returned to him with courtesies by General Ibrahim Babangida in 1985. It was however too late as Awolowo died in 1987!
“It is also on record that with President Buhari’s directive, Chief Olabisi Onabanjo was abducted by military men while recuperating from a surgical operation at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. He was sent to Bauchi prison.
“President Buhari sent our notable leaders like Onabanjo, Jakande, Chief Michael Ajasin, Bola Ige, Chief Bisi Akande and others to jail for committing no offence other than showing commitment to the development of the region and welfare of the people.
“Curiously, in April this year, when he was granting state pardon to those he sent to jail as military Head of State, the President did not remember to extend this pardon to Chief Bisi Akande, despite being his party man and one of those who ensured his electoral victory in 2015 and 2019.
“Therefore, Mr President, as you celebrate your 78 birthday, take heed to this wise counsel and seek forgiveness from the Almighty Allah (Subhanahu wa ta’ala) and the people you have caused untold sufferings, especially those in the South-West.”
