APC chiefs on FG’s security watch list
Category: Nigerian National News
According to a fresh report by PUNCH, security agencies have put some national leaders of the opposition All Progressives Congress on the watch list, a top government official said on Sunday.
According to a fresh report by PUNCH, security agencies have put some national leaders of the opposition All Progressives Congress on the watch list, a top government official said on Sunday.
The official, who asked not to be named,
confided in selected journalists in Abuja that the APC leaders could be
picked up by security agents in case any untoward incident occurred
following the threats allegedly issued by the politicians over the
impeachment of Adamawa State ex-governor, Murtala Nyako.
The source said the Federal Government
would not hesitate to order the arrest of the unnamed opposition leaders
“if they do not desist from the campaign of calumny they are currently
embarking against President Goodluck Jonathan over Nyako’s ouster.”
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| National Chairman, All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun |
Nyako was removed from office by the state legislators over allegations of gross misconduct.
The National Chairman of the APC, Chief
John Odigie-Oyegun, had at a press conference on Wednesday last week
accused Jonathan of being behind Nyako’s removal.
Also, a national leader of the party,
Bola Tinubu, had on Friday reiterated Odigie-Oyegun’s claim, adding that
Nyako attracted Jonathan’s wrath for defecting from the Peoples
Democratic Party and for writing a memo to governors in the northern
states.
Nyako had, in the memo referred to by
Tinubu, accused the President of carrying out genocide against the North
in the government’s ongoing war against terror.
But the government source, who spoke to
journalists on Sunday, said the security report available to the
government showed “clearly” the underhand dealings of the APC leaders
shortly before the governor was removed.
He claimed that intelligence reports
revealed that two APC governors, one from the North and the other from
the South, approached some members of the Adamawa State House Assembly
with financial inducements to the tune of N250m each for them to scuttle
the move to remove the governor.
He explained that out of the 25 state
lawmakers, five were with Nyako while two travelled at the time the
impeachment process scaled through.
The government official added that the
APC governors (names withheld) succeeded in buying one lawmaker over,
and that attempts were made to buy one or two more so that the number of
lawmakers required for the governor to be removed would not be
achieved.
The government official also said that
when it became clear to the APC chiefs that they would not be able to
buy the lawmakers over, they resorted to threats.
The source said, “It was the assurance
that they got from the lawmaker that more members would be bought over
that gave birth to the reports then that Nyako might resign.
“When it was clear to them that the money might not do the magic, they resorted to threats.
“They threatened some of the lawmakers
that they would be killed if they did not collect the money and stop the
impeachment process.
“What they don’t know is that all these
are recorded. If they continue with these their unfounded allegations
against the President, the security agencies would be directed to arrest
them and confront them with overwhelming evidence.”
The source insisted that the President had no hand in Nyako’s removal, saying it was a pure legislative matter.
Under Nigeria’s constitution, state
governors enjoy immunity from prosecution. This means that the governors
who offered the bribe could be spared while security agents go after
other party leaders who do not enjoy immunity.
The APC, in reaction on Sunday, dared the Presidency to carry out the threat.
National Publicity Secretary of the
party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said it was shameful that the Presidency had
been reduced to using anonymous sources to make baseless allegations.
According to him, Nigerians are tired of being deceived by an administration “which has won laurels in corruption.”
Mohammed said, “Tell them to publish
whatever evidence they have and tell them to go ahead and arrest them,
why are they insulting the intelligence of Nigerians? This outburst is
simply telling you how stupid they are.
“Multiply N250m by 20, how much is that?
N250m in four places is N1bn; in 20 places is N5bn. Do they think
everybody is as stupid as they are? Do they think that one governor
could pull out five billion, either in Naira or Dollars, and the system
will not detect it?
“Is this feasible? Why are they hiding
and making unsubstantiated allegations? Why can’t they expose the
governors and arrest them? What they are trying to do is to cover up
their own corruption.
“Nigerians still want to know what
happened to the missing $20bn oil money, Nigerians want to know how come
300,000 barrels of our crude oil go missing every day; Nigerians want
to know what happened to the subsidy fraud scam, let them publish the
details of the Malabu oil scandal.”
The APC spokesperson wondered why the
Presidency had been unable to invite the leaders of the opposition party
or the party’s governors, whom, it alleged, were involved in bribing
legislators for questioning if indeed they had any evidence against
them.
“We told them how much they offered our
legislators in Edo State; we exposed how much they offered those in
Nasarawa. They should stop annoying Nigerians.” Mohammed said.
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