Tag: Advice

THE National coordinator of Arewa United and National Vice Chairman, Arewa Youths Development Association, Alhaji Ado Shuaibu Dunsudu, has urged the Joint Task Force (JTF), to be thorough in screening suspects arrested in connection with Boko Haram to avoid implicating the innocent.

Dunsudu made the appeal yesterday in Lagos while lamenting the insecurity in the northern part of the country.

He noted that all those arrested over the Boko Haram issue were not all from the North, stating that those caught in the North were not all Hausas, nor are they all Muslims.

Dunsudu said: “I am surprised that such things will be happening and when you look at it very well, you will wonder why they are only happening in the North. If you look at it well, you will see that it is only where opposition is strong that such a thing is happening, like Kano, Yobe, Bornu and Bauchi.

“May I ask: why? Maybe President Goodluck Jonathan wants to come back and may be that is why they are causing problems in those states.”

He added: “Maybe during election, nobody will be able to challenge them, including the federal government agents, the police and the army. That will give them the opportunity to do what they like.”

“Nobody can rightly say that the people causing the trouble are only Muslims because some Christians had been caught and so for some Muslims. No one has any moral right to say that the thing is being perpetrated by a particular people. The problem is that whenever people are arrested, there has been no proper investigation”.

Opponents of Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio were yesterday challenged to judge him based on what he has done for his people and desist from baseless attacks on his person.

The Centre for Media and Development (CMD), an Abuja-based organisation, which made the call through its director, Magnus Eze, stated: “The recent personal criticisms against Chief Akpabio are laughable and saddening. People, sponsored by enemies of progress, are making issues out the governor’s acts of benevolence instead of his unparalleled developmental strides and world-class achievements in Akwa Ibom State. Nigerians should not criticise public office holders for criticism’s sake; rather, they should put them on their toes for failure to deliver, a sin that Akpabio is not guilty of.”

According to the centre, at the bottom of the recent spate of structured but baseless mudslinging of Akpabio were political machinations targeted to pull him down. It added that two meetings were held by some forces opposed to the governor’s progress – one in Lagos and the other in one of the South-South states – where “media undertakers were conscripted to rubbish the governor.”

Eze urged the mass media and, indeed, Nigerians not to allow themselves to be used for smear campaigns aimed at discrediting worthy public office holders such as Akpabio, saying: “In the country today, Akpabio remains one of the worthy examples of good governance. His administration is an exemplar of how government should be made to work for the people. Why is he now being demonised for his benevolence when such has not slowed down the pace of development in Akwa Ibom State?”

Eze charged those disturbed by Akpabio’s towering profile to prove themselves through hard work and commitment to common good rather than engaging and sponsoring attacks on him, adding that he “has been variously commended for his outstanding performance in Akwa Ibom State and his selfless contributions to the growth and stability of the state.