16th March, 2015
The allegation by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that the President Goodluck Jonathan administration is sponsoring ethnic militias to foment trouble to scuttle the forthcoming general elections should not be taken lightly.
Is it not strange that the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, took to the streets last week seeking the sack of INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega? What has MASSOB got to do with Jega’s sack when it claims to be agitating for the State of Biafra? Could the group’s protest have been orchestrated by the Jonathan administration as part of its continuing efforts to sabotage the elections as alleged by the APC?
It is equally strange for the Federal Government to have awarded a N9 billion contract to ethnic militias such as the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), and former Niger Delta militants on the eve of the nation’s general elections in the guise of protecting the oil pipelines. It’s dangerous to hand out such huge funds to militias which in the past maimed and killed people in the pursuit of their parochial interest.
The contract the militias have been awarded to execute could be carried out easily by conventional military and paramilitary forces. Civil Defence Corps in particular has achieved a great deal protecting the nation’s oil pipelines from vandalism. Besides, oil theft has worsened in the Niger Delta region since the Federal Government handed over the protection of oil pipelines to former militants.
In whose interest would it be if Jega is removed barely two weeks to the general elections? Why we smell a rat in all these things happening is because President Jonathan allows his portrait to be placed in newspaper advertorials castigating Jega over the plan to use card readers and alleged lopsided distribution of PVCs. If the President does not have a hand in the campaign of calumny against Jega, why hasn’t he dissociated himself from the advertorials attacking Jega?
Security agencies should not relent in arresting those who want to scuttle the polls under any guise. Nigerians have seen through all the gimmicks and sponsored protests to humiliate Jega because he has insisted on the use of card readers in order to have credible elections. At this crucial time Jega should not be distracted from concluding the preparations for the conduct of credible elections.