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Recent statements by some of our
political opponents over the terrorist
bombing near Eagle Square in Abuja on
October 1 have tended to politicize what
is a simple matter of crime and its
investigation.
When
President
Goodluck Jonathan, during
a visit to the National Hospital to
commiserate with victims of the bombing,
said the terrorist act should not merely
be ascribed to MEND, what he was simply
saying was that nobody should use the
name of any organization to cover up a
heinous crime. He was not absolving MEND
or any other
group of blame or culpability.
The first time the president spoke on
the bombings was at the ECOWAS
parliament in
Abuja.
There, he had pointed out that a heinous
crime had been committed against the
country and innocent lives had been
lost. He thus considered it a gratuitous
insult for anyone to claim that it was
done by MEND, or had anything to do with
the
Niger Delta.
This is even more so, he said, since
government was in touch with the
leadership of MEND (all of whom had
renounced violence), and they all agree
that the organization had nothing to do
with the blasts.
The President sought to put the correct
emphasis on the urgent need to get to
the bottom of that sordid act of terror
and to unearth the perpetrators, because
after all, anyone can hide under the
umbrella of MEND or any other
organization or body for that matter to
cover up acts of malfeasance.
It is high time we did away with the
rather lazy approach of explaining away
criminal activity by blaming armed
robbers or assassins as if such
categorization takes away from the
severity of the offence. Such an
approach has somehow affected the
investigation
of some high profile murders committed
in this country in recent memory
including the murder of such prominent
citizens as the late
Dele Giwa,
Alfred Rewane, Bola Ige, Marshal Harry
and A. K. Dikibo, amongst others.
With regards to the claims and
vituperations of Henry Okah, a member of
MEND who was granted pardon under the
amnesty programme initiated by late
President Umaru Musa Yar Adua, the point
is if he has committed a crime and is in
anyway linked to the bombing of October
1 he will be brought to justice. No
amount of obfuscation and diversionary
tactics will prevent the full
investigation of that crime against our
fatherland on October 1.
For those who insist that there was a
rush to judgment on the part of the
President on this matter, it bears
restating that what he sought to do was
to reassure Nigerians that the
perpetrators will be found, a process
which could be hampered by a rather
casual attribution of the violence to
MEND. As President and Commander in
Chief of the
Armed
Forces, it is his bounden
duty to speak out in times of danger in
order to reassure the populace of the
government’s commitment to their safety
and wellbeing. This is the practice
wherever you have a
responsible
government that is
committed to the welfare of its people.
Our Campaign Organization stands by the
President. The campaign urges him not to
be swayed by the loud protestations in
certain quarters clearly orchestrated to
divert and confuse the real issue: that
an act of war was launched against
Nigeria
on October 1, which claimed the lives of
many innocent Nigerians. Its masterminds
and perpetrators
must be fished out and punished.
Having said that, the point must be made
that those promising to make the country
ungovernable for President Jonathan, as
Alhaji Lawal Kaita openly boasted
recently, must also be ready to keep a
date with the law. We are after all a
country governed by laws, and the laws
of treason are very clear in this
regard.
We were all witnesses to the high wire
political mischief played in years gone
by, all aimed at achieving effortless
regime change. We remember how fifth
columnists executed searches on the
homes of the late Chief
Obafemi Awolowo
and others, to achieve predetermined
ends. We also recall how, in that epoch,
the issue of 53 suitcases was
contrived to ease a putsch against
Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari.
Clearly we are on the march again, and
the same characters of yesteryears are
the game players once again. But this
time, Nigerians can not be fooled. Our
people remain eternally vigilant, and we
call on the security agencies not to
hesitate to charge anyone found culpable
with the relevant laws of the land.
Mr. Sully Abu
Director of Media and Publicity
Jonathan/Sambo Presidential Campaign
Organisation.
Abuja.
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