2019: PDP accused of shedding crocodile tears over proposed Operation Python Dance III

- A group has warned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against condemning the proposed nationwide exercise

- The group said it was surprised that PDP could make such allegations that the exercise was conceived to intimidate voters at the 2019 polls

- According to the group, Operation Python Dance can be credited for flushing out practitioners of kidnap for ransom in the southeast

The opposition has been accused of shedding crocodile tears over the Nigerian Army's proposed Operation Python Dance across the country.

A Yoruba youth group, Progressive Yoruba Youth, warned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against condemning the proposed nationwide exercise.

Speaking to journalists, the national president of the group, Kola Salawu, said he was surprised that PDP could make such allegations that the exercise was conceived to intimidate voters during the 2019 polls.

Salawu said the reasons given by the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, showed that the operation successfully curtailed the separatist elements in that part of the country and was therefore able to keep the country united.

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He said Operation Python Dance can be credited for flushing out practitioners of kidnap for ransom in the southeast, it has reduced armed robbery in the area and even more significantly and has been instrumental in mopping up the small arms that once proliferated the entire area.

"In the south-west, we have been dealing with several instances of criminality that have defied the regular police force and we will not allow PDP’s tantrum to deny us of the opportunity to be rid of these problems," Salawu said.

"We know for a certainty that there has been an upsurge in robberies, cultism and even more pressing are the ritualists that seem to have been on the upsurge. We believe that the nationwide Operation Python Dance, in addition to any other thing that the Army has in mind, would help deal with these issues besetting the southwest.

"When the operation takes place simultaneously, we expect it to be even more effective since it will not be possible for the criminal elements threatening the well-being of the country to escape from one part to the other.

"If the PDP is unable to come to terms with reality, it only needs to remind itself that a Boko Haram kingpin responsible for crimes in Abuja, Niger, Edo, Ondo and Kogi states was apprehended in Lagos.

"This is indicative of the extent to which criminals have spread across the country in their bid to escape from the heat that has been turned on them in the places where they once operated. We understand that the continuation of these crimes work fine for the PDP, which sees them as cheap campaign props.

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We will not waste time asking if the PDP is responsible for these crimes in order to use them for campaign," Salawu said.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that a Federal High Court in Abuja has been asked to declare as unlawful and unconstitutional, the declaration of “Operation Python Dance” across the nation by the Nigerian Army.

The plea was contained in a suit filed by a Lagos-based rights campaignner, Malcom Omirhobo, on Wednesday, January 2.

The applicants in the suit labelled FHC/ABJ/CS/01/2019, are Omirhobo and Board of Incorporated Trustees of Malcom Omirhobo Foundation.

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Source: Legit.ng