The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation, has called on Nigerians and members of the international community to interrogate the relationship between Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) as well as Boko Haram and the All Progressives Congess (APC) with its presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari.
Femi Fani-Kayode, Director Director of Media and Publicity of the Organisation, made the call on Friday in Abuja against the backdrop of the purported endorsement by MEND of General Buhari’s presidential candidacy on the APC platform.
He said when accosted by journalists that Buhari’s comments about insurgency in Nigeria were worrisome and that his endorsement by MEND, a discredited militia group, should also give Nigerians and the international community great concerns.
The PDP Presidential Campaign spokesperson said with the way events are curiously unfolding, it would not come as a surprise if Boko Haram group equally publicly endorses General Buhari and the APC.
According to him, “it is important for Nigerians to take another look at General Buhari’s comments about Boko Haram and the way he has encouraged Boko Haram group.
“It is on public record that Buhari had announced to the whole world that it was unfair and unjust for the Boko Haram to be tackled had killed over 20,000 innocent Nigerians, mostly women and children, after burning their homes and destroying their communities.
“It is also on record that Buhari has severally and consistently criticized government for protecting Nigerians against the attacks of Boko Haram and has gleefully announced that government forces should stop attacking th Boko Haram, and in fact, should treat them like the Niger Delta militants; in other words, rehabilitate them, grant them amnesty and pay them every month, concluding that any attack on the Boko Haram sect was a declaration of war on the people of Northern Nigeria.”
This, according to Fani-Kayode, brings us to the question of the true nature of Buhari’s relationship with these terrorist group and its international affiliates.
He further stated that the APC’s presidential spokesperson, Lai Mohammed, whom he described as a friend, had supported Buhari by stating that the proscription of Boko Haram by Federal Government after they had murdered 20,000 Nigerians in cold blood was unjust and unconstitutional.
“I think it is relevant and something of interest for all Nigerians and the members of the international community to begin to ask questions about the nexus between Boko Haram, MEND and all these terrorist organizations that find it easy to kill people and the leading opposition presidential candidate and the APC.
“This is the question Nigerians should seek answers to because insecurity is one of the fundamental issues of the campaign for the office of president and Nigerians must be wary of any person seeking to be president and has such public sympathy for terrorist organisations in spite of the obvious damages that they inflicted on the country,” he said.
Fani-Kayode also said that the disclosure on Thursday by President Goodluck Jonathan that some Nigerians hired MEND leader, Henry Okah, who masterminded the October 1, 2010, to kill him was not late in coming.
According to him, “I think it is better late than never; perhaps if it has been exposed at that time, the implications would have been not so good because it would have created more tension in the land.
“The most important thing is that this is a government and a president that is quite open that tells Nigerians what they ought to know at the right time. There is no question about the fact on October 1 on that particular year, there was a bomb; the president was meant to actually appear at that venue, but luckily for him and luckily for us, he did not turn up there and this bomb went off and people were killed.
“It is self-evident even from those facts alone that it was an attempt on the president; people could have put two and two together at that time and got four. It wasn’t really for the president to say so but now, it is relevant simply because this same organization that wanted to kill your president, our president, the president of the leading nation of the African continent and the president of the nation that is seen by many as the hope of the black man on the planet, four years later that same organization is endorsing General Buhari, a man that wants to take his seat. You put two and two together, it becomes four; it doesn’t become five and I will let you work out what is going on.”
Reacting to the swipe taken at him by his counterpart in the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation, Garba Shehu that he was attacking the person of Buhari rather than focusing on issues, Fani-Kayode said it was not in Shehu’s place to teach him how to do his job.
According to him, “It is not for the spokesperson of the APC or the spokesman of the presidential campaign of General Buhari to tell me what to do or how to do my job. I would do my job the way I see fit.
“I believe General Buhari himself is an issue. He is just one of the many issues because you have a man that has told the world his intentions for Nigeria, whether it will be that he wants to spread Sharia throughout the country, whether it would be he wants to tamper with the secularity of the state, whether it would be that he believes that Moslem should only vote for Moslems, whether it would be that he believes that an attack on Boko Haram is an attack on the North.”
