Attacks on Buhari wicked — Itsekiri leader

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and leader of Itsekiri nation in Delta State, Dr. Alex Ideh, hassaid the verbal and printed attacks on Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) by the Peoples Democratic Party and its supporters were wicked and misleading.Ideh, who was the Secretary to the APC Convention Committee that produced Buhari as the presidential candidate, said in a statement Friday that such attacks on the person of the party’s flag bearer might mislead younger generation of voters.He asked the PDP and its followers to abide by the Abuja Peace Accord by “refraining from such callousand disparaging verbal attacks.”“It is true he was a soldier and led Nigeria for 14 months. But, those who now seek to hold him out as anundemocratic monster must be guilty of an extraordinary amount of revisionism. We must uphold the truth and describe the circumstances as they are.“I am privileged to speak on our experience of democracy because I have been a participant and a ring-side operator for over 30 years. I can assert with some authority that most critics of Buhari were romancing the civilian regime he ousted. I was a part of that regime and can recall with some regret, that the (Shehu) Shagari administration which he removed was an epitome of maladministration,” the statement read in part.According to the APC chieftain, there was widespread rancour during the Shagari administration which witnessed witch-hunting and corruption.“In one iconic moment, Alhaji Shugaba, a full-fledged Nigerian, was thrown out of our borders on the contrived excuse that he was an alien. Such extra-judicial determination was part of a range of widespread abuses which disfigured the regime that Buhari was compelled to forcibly remove. Only few mourned the ouster of the corrupt Shagari regime.“When Buhari took over, apart from a rump of the elites in the NPN, his regime was received with great adulation countrywide. This reception was reinforced not just by his personal reputation for probity and single-mindedness, but also because the prevailing orthodoxy welcomed military intervention as an antidote to perverse governance. Some of the persons now crucifying Buhari were amongst those who rolled out the drums when General Buhari intervened,” Ideh added.He urged Nigerians not to fall for the misinformation being peddled by them, assuring them that Buhari’s reputation is guaranteed.