The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National New Media Group (PDP-NNMG) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of seeking to turn Nigeria into a one-party state by proscribing the PDP, the main opposition party in the country, and using security agencies to silence critics of his government.

PDP-NNMG said it was alarmed by the call by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should withdraw PDP’s certificate of registration as a political party. It described the call as a prelude to the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government’s plan to kill the main opposition parties before the 2019 presidential election to pave way for President Buhari to be re-elected unopposed.

PDP-NNMG, in a release on Sunday, which was signed by its Acting National Publicity Secretary, Edoko Wilson Edoko, said Lai Mohammed lacked moral rights to accuse the PDP of politicising the Dapchi Girls abduction and release, accusing him of being a sympathiser of the terrorists in the past.

According to the statement, “It is on record that as the Spokesperson of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Lai Mohammed issued a press statement on June 9, 2013, condemning the proscription of Boko Haram and Ansaru, saying proscription of the terrorist organisations was a violation of the Constitution.

“Also as APC spokesperson, Lai Mohammed was in London on September 9th, 2014 where he told the British Parliament that the then President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP were manipulating the Boko Haram crisis to return Jonathan to power in 2015.

“So we ask which party politicised the Boko Haram insurgency between the APC and PDP. Is it the PDP that is questioning the inconsistency of the APC led federal government on the fight against the insurgents or the APC that kicked against labeling them terrorists then?

“While we in the PDP-NNMG will continue to join other well-meaning Nigerians to pray for the return of the remaining Dapchi Girl as well as other Nigerians that are in Boko Haram captivity, we won’t shy away from asking the federal government relevant questions, especially the reason for the removal of military checkpoints from Dapchi and other towns a few days before the abduction of the school girls.

“Curiously, too, the APC Governor Yobe state Governor, Ibrahim Geidam, who said publicly that military checkpoints were withdrawn from Dapchi and other towns days before the abduction of girls have not said anything since he made that statement. Even now that the girls have returned except one, the governor has not said a word. Isn’t this strange?”

The PDP-NNMG therefore alert Nigerians on the clandestine plot by the federal government to hide under security issue to silence opposition in the country.