The Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) yesterday requested security agencies in the country to arrest leader of the Niger Delta militant group, Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo, over his recent statement on President Goodluck Jonathan and the 2015 presidential race.
Dokubo had at a news conference in Abuja last weekend said that Nigeria would be in crisis if Jonathan does not win re-election as President.
According to Dokubo, “the day Goodluck is no longer the President, all of us who are on sabbatical will come back and there will be no peace, not only in the Niger Delta but everywhere; if they say it is an empty boast let them wait and see.”
Describing the proclamation as treasonable, the NSGF through its Chairman, Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu of Niger state, noted that Dokubo’s position is “inciting” adding that, “by now, the security agencies should have arrested him for treason.”
Aliyu spoke yesterday in Minna when he received members of the House of Representatives committee on Education led by Honourable Aminu Sule who paid him a courtesy call at Government House.
According to Aliyu, “you do not win election by frightening people and even if you win, the victory will be pyrrhic.
“We should bring discipline to our politics; we should be a nation of rules”.
He also said that Nigerians and its leaders should cultivate the habit of respecting its security agencies and give them the support that will make them successful in their assignments.
Also yesterday, the House of Representatives urged the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to investigate and prosecute Presidential Adviser on Niger-Delta Amnesty Programme, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, for purportedly making inciting statements capable of causing disaffection among Nigerians.
Kuku was reported to have said in the United States that there would be chaos in the country if Jonathan is not re-elected in 2015.
The House also mandated its committee on Public Safety and National Security to liaise with the IGP and keep it abreast with any development on the subject matter and condemned the statements “in the strongest terms.”
In a motion moved by Aliyu Sani Madaki under matters of urgent public importance, titled, “Need to check the utterances of some Nigerians capable of causing disaffection among people in the country,” he regretted that, “while Nigerians are fervently praying for peace in Nigeria, some Nigerians are already out sowing a seed of discord amongst people,” adding that if not checked, the statements credited to Kuku and Dokubo were “capable of creating disunity and disaffection among the good people of Nigeria.”
On its part, the Arewa Youth Forum (AYF) responding to Dokubo’s statement, said the north is not worried “because we have all its takes to protect the interest of the region and country.”
The AYF National President, Gambo Ibrahim Gunjugu, in a statement said that, “Asari must understand and recognize the fact that we in the north are not afraid of war or violence that he is declaring, but following recent antecedents in the country we are of the view that this is the time for well meaning Nigerians to put their heads together and work for peace and the socio economic development of the country.
“We are looking forward to the 2015 elections with minds of democrats who believe in the democratic tenents that will usher in socio -economic development for a united Nigeria where all youths in Nigeria will be able to achieve their potentials.
“We believe that power comes from God and he will give it to whoever he pleases anytime he pleases.
“Ordinarily, we would not join issues with the likes of Asari that are known for the antecedents but let it not be known that as youth from the north, we are not afraid of anything that Asari and his cohorts can dish out, we have what is takes to protect the interest of the north and the country as whole.
” All we are concerned about is to work with other stakeholders in the country towards the return of peace and normalcy in the region and by extension the country.”
Also, Executive Secretary of Anti-Corruption Network, and a former member of the House of Representatives, Dino Melaye, yesterday called on the federal government to treat the threat by the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Dokubo, with all seriousness.
Melaye in a statement in Abuja said the civil rights community was expecting what Jonathan would do on the threat from a man “who has carried arms against the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
He said, “were it to be any of us in the civil society groups that made such an outrageous statement, by now, we would have been invited by the SSS and the Police and we would have been accused of threatening the security and peace of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“How can a private citizen who has carried arms against the Federal Government of Nigeria before, that the country became so magnanimous to grant him amnesty, now categorically state that if Jonathan is not re-elected in 2015, apparently, there will be no Nigeria again.
“We are using this opportunity to call on the IGP, DG of SSS and DG of NIA to place Dokubo-Asari on caution and let him be made to write a statement and that statement must be investigated.”
On its part, the Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) urged the Federal Government to immediately call Kuku and Dokubo to order for what the group described as their “inflammatory media statements capable of igniting instability and disunity.
According to HURIWA, “the silence of President Jonathan in the last 48 hours since Mr. Dokubo made the threat of war should he (Jonathan) not be re-elected in 2015, is absolutely unacceptable and incongruous.”
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