Call ex-militants to order, Buhari’s campaign team tells Jonathan

•Kuku defends Bayelsa meeting
The All Progressives Congress Presidential
Campaign Organisation (APCPCO) has urged
President Goodluck Jonathan to call to order ex-
militants, who have declared war on the nation on
his behalf.
The ex-militants last Saturday at a meeting in
Bayelsa State, the president’s home state,
threatened to go to war, if Jonathan did not win the
February 14 presidential election.
In a statement, APCPCO’s Director of Media and
Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said the ultimatum
from the ex-militants was irresponsible and a
barbaric threat to the sovereignty of the nation and
against the spirit and letter of the non-violence
pact to which the president was a signatory.
The APC presidential campaign said the declaration
of war against the state was causing panic and
concern among Nigerians who are already
embattled by so many challenges, particularly
insecurity.
Shehu reminded Jonathan that as commander-in-
chief, it was his primary responsibility to ensure
the protection of the citizens and their property.
He added that such open declaration of war by the
ex-militants and several other acts of violence
must be denounced by the president in the interest
of democracy, unity and stability of nation.
Shehu said those beating the drums of war needed
to change to peace beats so that the citizens,
especially the youth, would be encouraged to show
that the sustenance of the country’s democracy “is
better achieved through the ballot and not the
bullet”.
The APC campaign called on Jonathan to make
good on his declaration that his “re-election is not
worth the blood of any Nigerian by calling these
war-mongers in his domain to order”.
The organisation maintained that the latest threat
was not an isolated act, adding that the threat on
General Muhammadu Buhari by Ekiti State
Governor Ayo Fayose and the attacks on the
party’s offices and rally in Rivers State were
pointers of a coordinated insurrection against the
APC ahead of next month’s general elections.
According to him, “it is disconcerting that the
president has not immediately addressed such
treasonable actions by persons, who in the past,
have taken up arms against the nation, “and whose
amnesty is dependent on their good behaviour and
complete disarmament.”
“The president needs to remember that he took an
oath, as commander-in-chief, to protect Nigeria
against all threats, external and internal. In this
case, his silence could be misconstrued as an
implicit approval of this declaration of war, seeing
as the meeting of the warlords and subsequent
declaration of war were from his own backyard, his
home state.
”The first step the President needs to take, to show
seriousness in dealing with this issue is to dismiss
from his government, his Special Adviser on Niger
Delta, Kingsley Kuku who presided at the meeting
at which this obnoxious resolution to dismember
Nigeria was taken,” the statement said.
But, defending Kuku’s presence at the meeting, his
Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Daniel Alabra, said:
“It was a peace meeting called by Bayelsa State
and held at the Government House. Kuku was only
invited to that meeting just as Asari. Whatever
Asari said after the meeting was his own opinion.
“The meeting was not called to threaten anybody
or section of the country or the country.
“It was called in respect of the tension rising in the
Niger Delta concerning the attack on the president
in the North during his campaign. His campaign
buses have been burnt; he has been stoned.”