The Chairman, Board of Trustee (BOT), Arewa
Consultative Forum (ACF) and Former Minister,
Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, General
Jeremiah Useni (rtd) has declared that he is not
afraid of death.
Consequently, the retired general who was in
Kaduna for a special convention that brought about
his election to the presitgious position as BOT
chairman of ACF said he is not bothered by any
threat to eliminate him. He stated this in an
interview with journalists in reaction to the news
that he is one of the people marked for elimination
by interest group in Plateau state shortly after the
last Jos mayhem.Dismissing the threat , Gen.
Useni retorted that "I am not afraid of death"
stressing that "only God can take one's life" and
wondered why his name should be on the list which
according to him is made up of a faction of PDP
members while he is not a member of the ruling
party.
"In Plateau state, PDP is divided into two - PDP
1 and PDP 2. All those people listed there are
members of PDP 2. I am not a member of PDP 2. I am
not even a member of PDP let alone belonging to a
faction. So I wonder how my name got there".
Speaking further, Gen. Useni who alleged that the
list may have come from PDP 1 suspected that his
name may have appeared on the list mistakingly or
delibrately because "I criticised the government
over the way they handled the election and that the
crisis was not religion as the government tried to
tell the public but it was political.''
"What happened in Jos was very unfortunate. I
criticised because I thought it was wrong. So I am
not disturbed that my name is there on the list of
those to be eliminated. And because I am not
disturbed, I don't move about with escort on the
streets of Jos, I drive myself on the street if I go
home", Jeremiah said.
Though he decried the setting up of two committees -
one by Governor Jang and the other by President
Yar'Adua to look into the crisis in which lives and
property worth millions of Naira were destroyed, the
retired army general has appealed to various
interest groups in the state to keep calm and wait
for the outcome of the
committees.
Speaking on the relationship between ACF
and the administration of President Umaru Musa
Yar'Adua, the Board chairman denied the feelings
that ACF has developed cold feet because Yar'Adua is
the son of the soil .General Useni said
Yar'Adua's respect for the rule of law unlike
Obasanjo, endeared him to ACF. "We have been
criticising Yar'Adua. One good thing about him is
that he obeys the rule of law. If it were Obasanjo,
you would not have had the history of some governors
being removed because he (Obasanjo) put them there
by force and he would not have allowed any one to be
removed. You can see the changes", he agued in
defence of ACF.
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