The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cautioned the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, to refrain from acts or actions that will suggest in any way that the military has become an arm of a political party.
The party gave the warning in a statement issued to Pulse by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan.
Buratai had earlier cautioned PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, over a recent comment he made about the Army disobeying certain orders.
Read PDP’s reaction below:
The PDP says Gen. Buratai’s allusion to the people’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as well as his threats to officers and ranks to execute the unlawful order by President Muhammadu Buhari to participate in the electoral process is an aberration of our laws and a recipe for crisis.
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The PDP states that Atiku Abubakar spoke
Gen. Buratai is counseled to note that the loyalty of the military is to the state and that the President lacks the powers, under our laws, to deploy soldiers for the conduct of elections.
Our party urges Gen Buratai to concentrate on his very demanding assignment of protecting the territorial integrity of our nation and ending insurgency rather than dabbling into partisan politics at the risk of our national cohesion.
It is imperative to state that by trying to drag the military to participate in the February 23 Presidential elections, President Buhari plots to suspend our constitution, assume the position of an emperor, trigger unrest, subvert our electoral process and derail our democracy.