The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari against pursuing a third term agenda in 2023.
The party was reacting to 2023 campaigns for the president in the media, and a statement credited to the Buhari presidency on Tuesday, October 1.
But President Buhari had on Tuesday in a statement obtained by Igbere TV said he will not, under any circumstance, seek a third term in office.
A statement issued by his spokesman, Garba Shehu obtained by Igbere TV said “Buhari will not be a candidate” in the 2023 presidential election upon the completion of his second term.
Reacting in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyban, the PDP, however, described any of such move as “a dangerous underhand politics capable of derailing our democracy and destabilizing our nation.”
He berated the statements by the Presidency “as unhealthy ploy to introduce a repugnant issue into official discourse in a bid to give it a life and achieve its fruition in the political arena.”
“The PDP says it is preposterous for the Presidency cabal and the APC to think that Nigerians cannot see through their shenanigan to import and elevate what they labeled as rumor and internet-based gossip, into official national discourse”, he said.
“Our party notes that Nigerians will not be surprised when, after the statements by the Presidency and APC, new groups surface to orchestrate more forceful agitations in the public space for the alteration of the 1999 Constitution to achieve an ignoble aim”, Ologbondiyban added.
The PDP cautioned the Presidency and the APC to note that “Nigerians are already aware of individuals and political interests in the Presidency cabal in addition to known APC agents who are behind the street demonstrations for a third term for President Buhari.”
“The party invites Nigerians to note how, having been busted, the presidency cabal and the APC are now groping for ways to cover their trails by making frivolous allegations which directly point back to them”, the statement said.
The party therefore urged President Muhammadu Buhari to personally speak out and immediately call his supporters to order “as Nigerians will never allow anybody, no matter how highly placed, to alter any part of our constitution to serve a selfish interest.”
“The PDP insists that this has become imperative in view of the series of constitutional violations and provocative undermining of our laws by the APC and power mongers in the Buhari Presidency”, the statement added.
