The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Kuku

  • Amnesty office withdraws six students from Russian varsity

    Amnesty office withdraws six students from Russian varsity

    The Presidential Amnesty Office has announced the withdrawal of six of 24 former Niger Delta agitators studying at the Peoples University in Russia.

    It said the withdrawal followed the indictment of the students as the masterminds of last week’s protest at the Nigerian Embassy in Moscow, where 16 Nigerian students were arrested by the Russian authorities.

    The students had staged a protest at the embassy, demanding the payment of outstanding allowances for six months, among other things.

    All the withdrawn students were beneficiaries of a special scholarship scheme for Niger Delta youths.

    Announcing the withdrawal yesterday in Abuja, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Kingsley Kuku said the action of the protesting students was uncalled for.

    Kuku said their claims were found to be untrue, unprovoked and their action constituted a gross misconduct.

    A statement by the Presidential Amnesty Office and signed by the Special Assistant (Media), Mr. Daniel Alabra, quoted Kuku as saying: “For going on the rampage and violently attacking the Nigerian Mission, the students breached the code of conduct for delegates on scholarship, which they all signed before their departure from Nigeria. It is also a gross misconduct, which the Nigerian government cannot tolerate. Students on its sponsorship cannot go on the rampage on flimsy excuses in a foreign country and damage the image and reputation of Nigeria.

    “Our records show that the students were not being owed their In-Training Allowance (ITA) for six months, as they alleged. In fact, the only unremitted allowance was for September (2013), which had been approved and was being processed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the time they attacked the mission.

    “My office had communicated with the students on Friday, September 27, on the processing of their ITA for September and October (2013) and the need for them to be patient while it was being handled by the CBN.”

  • Crude oil theft: Oil workers deny Kuku’s allegation

    Crude oil theft: Oil workers deny Kuku’s allegation

    Oil workers have said the allegation made against them by the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, that they were the brains behind the crude oil theft in the country is untrue.

    They are accusing politicians and influential people of perpetrating the heinous act.

    Reacting to a statement by the national newspaper (not The Nation) of July 17, 2013 titled: “Oil workers are the ones stealing crude oil,” the workers under the aegis of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), on Thursday evening described the statement as unimaginable, unguided, mischievous and uncouth of a Presidential Adviser.

    Oil workers, through their unions, took serious exemption to such alarming notion which they strongly believed was clownishly and flippantly discharged, unmindful of its implications and ramification

    The workers alleged that the criminal activities of crude oil theft were perpetrated by highly placed and influential individuals and politicians, adding that Kuku “is only being economical with the truth and trying to cover up with his allegation against the workers.”

    The unions asked the Federal Government to call to order the Special Adviser to the President against unguided and unsubstantiated provocative utterances in the interest of industrial peace and the respect for “our nation that seriously yearns for peace at this relatively volatile moment of our national life.”

    They expressed their readiness to take up the Special Adviser to the President unless he substantiates his allegation, saying that the Joint Tax Force (JTF) should also help in unmasking those behind the criminal act of crude oil theft and other national sabotage activities.

    PENGASSAN and NUPENG stated, “Kuku is only being mischievous. We challenge the authorities on its readiness to join forces with the national and state intelligence, defence and security agencies in the patriotic crusade to completely unearth and get to the bottom of this grievous international criminality and national calamity so that both the Nigerian public and international community, some of whom already know and relate with the culprits or the syndicates will not be deceived or fooled by people like Kingsley Kuku.

    “Issues of pipeline sabotage, crude oil thefts, illegal bunkering and refining activities were part of the major issues discussed during our emergency joint National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja on July 2, 2013, and we (PENGASSAN and NUPENG) indeed solemnly reiterated our concern on these acts of sabotage and demanded that all inventions

  • Dokubo, Kuku et al

    Dokubo, Kuku et al

    Outrage over statements by two key personages from the Niger Delta on the likely outcome of the 2015 elections should President Goodluck Jonathan fail to make it, is to be expected. The duo of Asari Dokubo, a repentant militant and Kingsley Kuku, special adviser to the president had at different occasions threatened dire repercussions for the country if Jonathan is not returned to power come 2015.

    They were reported to have said that the country will know no peace if Jonathan is not returned as president of the country. Even with the denial by Kuku that he did not say there will be a return to violence in the Niger Delta if Jonathan did not make it, not many are persuaded that he did not author the statement credited to him. This is more so as Dokubo has not denied his own version.

    There is the feeling that coming the way they did, those statements should not be dismissed with a wave of the hand. That perhaps accounts for the condemnations that have trailed them. Even then, such inciting statements are neither entirely new nor limited to the Niger Delta region.

    Before now, two northern leaders Adamu Ciroma and Lawal Kaita had issued threats insisting that the north must produce the president in 2015 else there will be dire consequences. Apart from these, there have equally been inciting statements from some other quarters on the 2015 elections and their possible outcome should things not go the way expected.

    Coming on the heels of earlier predictions that the Nigerian state might fail by 2015, these recurring threats must be a serious cause for worry. It is only hoped that we are not walking the path of self-fulfilling prophesy. But more importantly, the threats expose the nature of desperate politics we play in this country. They speak volumes on what progress or lack of it has been made in our quest for national integration in the last 52 years of our independence. Above all, we are being exposed to the motivational and propelling reasons for our pattern of political competition. And central to all is prebendalism-the quest for political power for the sole aim of satisfying ones immediate families and primordial interests. That is why the South-south is threatening fire and brimstone should their kinsman Jonathan fail to make it again. That is why the north is laying strident claims to power in 2015. And it is for the same reason other sections that have not taken a shot at the presidency are equally fighting for it.

    Implicit in all these struggles, is the feeling that it is by electing one of yours into strategic national offices that the interests of that section can be adequately protected. It also exposes the fact that we are yet unable to build national leaders and national institutions. Our people are yet to repose confidence in the capacity of our political leaders to rise above sectional, ethnic and primordial predilections despite pontifications to the contrary. By the same token, they are yet to come to terms with the reality that the resources of the country will not be disproportionately deployed to service sectional interests.

    So how do we expect this country to make any meaningful progress with such a ruinous political culture? How can meaningful development take place with the subsisting suspicion, mistrust and in-fighting among the component units? These are the issues to ponder especially when it is recalled that the spate of insecurity in the country is directly tied to events of the last presidential primaries of the ruling party.

    Is it not surprising that the credentials being bandied by all those threatening the country should their region fail to produce the next president are predicated on ethnic interests? Both Dokubo and Kuku are flaunting their Niger Delta credentials while Ciroma and Kaita are talking of northern interests. So where do we locate the Nigerian interest within this cacophony in sectional voices? That is the question to ponder. The issue is not just that sectional considerations dominate our perception of the power equation in this country but they now constitute serious threat to its continued survival.

    It is even more pondering that the feeling is permeating that political power can be cornered through threats by the component units. Ironically too, these threats are not limited to the political front. The dreaded Boko Haram religious sect that has been levying war on the country in the past two years had issued such threats. In its case, it is championing the institution of an Islamic state in the country for which it asked southerners to leave the north. The attacks on churches and southerners before now were predicated on its commitment to have its warped agenda come through. Even as we condemn the Niger Delta chieftains for threatening hell if Jonathan does not return for a second term, such inciting statements are not new in our political chessboard. As a matter of fact, they are fast assuming the necessary and sufficient conditions for groups within the country to seek accommodation and relevance from those who hitherto dominated its leadership. It is also very interesting that northern chieftains have also fallen for the same tactics. What matters now it would seem, is no longer merit or competence but the geo-political zone which the leader comes from. This is where this country has just found itself and that is very unfortunate. Perhaps, what all these underscore is the point that has been severally canvassed on the need for us to take another look at the basis for our continued stay as a country. Before now, several well meaning Nigerians have rooted for a national conference or its sovereign variant to determine Nigeria’s future. Those who make these calls hinge them on the imperative to resolve once and for all, the contentious issues of our federal structure so that the country can progress in an atmosphere devoid of their disruptive influences. But each time these issues are raised, those who purport to be the conscience of this country stridently oppose the idea. However, the issues that give rise to such calls refuse to disappear. Is it not time we face reality and save this country the distractions it faces on account of our inability or outright refusal to square up to our nagging problems? Or why do we delude ourselves to the effect that all is well when in all actuality, the component units live in mutual distrust and utter suspicion. Why do we oppose fresh negotiations on how we can live in harmony and achieve faster development when each day, issues arising from this continue to stare us in the face? Is it not confounding that sectarian and primordial cleavages are now at an all time high despite our touted unity over the past 52 years?

    Perhaps, if we had addressed some of these problems through the conference, the Niger Delta militancy and the Boko Haram insurgency which are serious threats to our nationhood would have been taken care of. Perhaps also, there would have been no need to resort to ad hoc amnesty palliatives for issues that would have been holistically tackled.

    It is therefore not enough to brood over threats from Niger Delta, Boko Haram, Arewa Forum, Oodua Peoples Congress and Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra. That is how bad our inability to address issues of our collective being has taken us to.

  • The fire-eating quartet of Jonathan, Amaechi, Kuku and Asari-Dokubo

    The suspicion in many quarters is that President Goodluck Jonathan actually thinks he has done substantially well enough to justify his party presenting him for re-election in 2015. Kingsley Kuku, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, and Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), a militant group physically but not psychologically repentant, think so too, and have reiterated that fact in very unpleasant and annoying language. While the president has kept prudently but disingenuously silent on his records and 2015 ambition, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State has spoken imprudently loud about his well-known enemies, their Abuja backers, and the subterfuge perpetrated by the presidency in the riverine state.

    Reacting to the massive disapproval that greeted his statements warning of economic sabotage and war if Dr Jonathan was not re-elected, but enjoying every bit of the publicity and attendant notoriety, Asari-Dokubo has goaded the public with yet more boastful and provocative comments. He could not be arrested, he threatened conceitedly, because the last time he was arrested and detained, oil production was cut down by a significant margin. This time, he thundered, his arrest would bring oil production to zero. Such buffoonery! There is no doubt that there are lots of troublemakers in the country, many of them lacking in restraint and sense of proportion, but the many silly remarks Asari-Dokubo made showed him to be a halfwit who should be noted but ignored.

    Hon. Kuku, who also heads the well-funded Presidential Amnesty Programme, was even more loquacious, insulting and conniving. “It is true that the Presidential Amnesty Programme has engendered peace, safety and security in the sensitive and strategic Niger Delta,” he began incongruously. “It is only a Jonathan presidency that can guarantee continued peace and energy security in the Niger Delta,” he concluded. He also managed to attempt to blackmail the United States warning them that if they fail to support Jonathan’s re-election it could threaten national stability and oil and gas exports. Unlike Nigeria, which is being blackmailed into precipitous appeasement of all sorts of malcontents, the US never likes to be arm-twisted. By now, after hearing all the careless talk by close aides and advisers of the president, foreign powers will have taken the measure of Nigerian rulers’ minds. They will not be surprised that Nigeria is embroiled in crisis.

    But much worse is the proxy war between the president himself and the governor of Rivers State. It is a turf war in which two leading politicians are fighting for supremacy. But the war is unsettling the state, promoting animosity, undermining the constitution, and worsening the tension that has enveloped the country from North to South. While the president’s men are fighting for control of the state in order not to lose it in 2015, Amaechi’s men tamely clutch only to the law and the constitution in a desperate struggle to stay afloat. It is not certain how the struggle will be resolved; whether the constitution will be sustained, or whether federal might will destabilise or even overwhelm the state.

    Whatever the situation in Rivers, and however the looming apocalypse in the Northeast, and now North-Central, plays out, the country should prepare for tough times ahead. The president can lower the temperature if he wants to. But there is no proof he knows how to or why he should, or more critically, the consequences of aggravating the turmoil in the country.

  • Dokubo, Kuku and the right to be obnoxious

    Dokubo, Kuku and the right to be obnoxious

    Drowned out by the outrage that greeted the atrocities at Baga, and later Bama, many would have missed an insightful contribution to the ongoing national discussion by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in faraway Geneva, Switzerland.

    Speaking as guest of the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations last week, Atiku denounced what he called “the militarisation of democracy.” More than one decade after the end of military rule and the advent of constitutional democracy, he said the culture of political intolerance and impunity still pervades the country.

    He talked about how retired military officers, who came to power as politicians brought with them military mindsets, and in the process exacerbated the culture of intolerance and impunity.

    Atiku’s comments are pithy but not exactly novel. What he failed to add was that even civilians who have found themselves in positions of power, as well as their hangers-on, have quickly imbibed the worst character traits of our past military-politicians – turning what we practice in Nigeria into the worst form of ‘garrison democracy.’

    In this variant, orders are orders, and once an edict is issued from on high all lesser mortals are expected to fall in line. In this environment, independent-mindedness counts as treachery of the worst order.

    In addition to being allowed to crush the right to hold an opinion, the guardians of our democracy are also demanding to be allowed to dictate what sort of opinions we should hold. Political correctness is now rampant – so much so that a man has to lose his right to be foolish.

    The whole brouhaha over the comments made by the Special Adviser to the President on Niger-Delta Amnesty Programme, Kingsley Kuku; and retired militant leader, Mujahid Asari Dokubo, underscores how far we have descended.

    Kuku, at a recent meeting with United States officials in Washington, had controversially said: “The peace that currently prevails in the zone (Niger Delta) is largely because Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who is from that same place, is the President of Nigeria. That is the truth. It is only a Jonathan presidency that can guarantee continued peace and energy security in the Niger Delta.”

    Not to be outdone, the voluble Dokubo jumped into the fray with even more incendiary comments. “I want to go on to say that, there will be no peace, not only in the Niger Delta but everywhere if Goodluck Jonathan is not president by 2015, except God takes his life, which we don’t pray for.”

    He didn’t stop there. He vowed that unless the incumbent was re-elected in two years, he and other ex-militants who had been “resting” would swiftly return the creeks and their old ways.

    I can understand the “do or die mentality” that runs through the remarks of the likes of Dokubo because he and other one-time Niger Delta militant leaders have seen their lot dramatically transformed under the Jonathan presidency. Today, some of them are sitting over pots of cash “protecting” pipelines and patrolling waterways.

    It doesn’t require a soothsayer to predict that were a Pharoah who never knew Joseph to arise, the stream of cool cash will dry up as some of these dubious contracts will be swiftly cancelled. So it is understandable if Dokubo threatens to rain down fire and brimstone if his meal ticket is snatched away.

    I am certain though that he does not speak for millions in the Niger Delta whose lot has not been bettered under the regime of their “brother” Jonathan. Neither does he represent the millions who want to carry on in peace regardless of whether a particular individual loses or wins the 2015 polls. Statements by former Information Minister, Chief Edwin Clark and the Ijaw National Congress (INC) distancing themselves from the excitable comments of the twosome confirm this.

    For me the statements made by Dokubo and Kuku don’t make sense given the way the Nigerian constitution is rigged. In order to become president you must have strong support all over the country. That is why only broad-based parties ever find their way into power.

    It follows therefore that no matter how passionate some of Jonathan’s Ijaw supporters are they do not have enough AK-47s to hold to the heads of millions of voters in the five other zones of the country to browbeat them into voting for their favoured candidate. Truth be told: if Jonathan loses in 2015 the heavens won’t cave in – not even in Otuoke.

    That is why I amazed at the equally over-the-top reactions from certain Northern leaders and some members of the National Assembly. The House of Representatives quickly asked a committee to probe the comments. The increasingly loquacious Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu, and a couple of others demanded the arrest of Dokubo. Some called for treason trials. For goodness sake!

    As some have rightly pointed out – many people from the north and elsewhere have said even more damnable things and no one has been arrested. The former Kaduna State Governor, Lawal Kaita, and a couple of others threatened in 2010 to make the nation ungovernable if Jonathan muscled his way to the presidency riding roughshod over the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) zoning arrangements.

    There are many who like the late National Security Adviser (NSA), General Owoye Azazi, believed that the rise in the insurgency in the north is intricately tied to the fall-out of the 2011 polls.

    What we need to understand is that in every democracy – even developed Western ones – there will always be people who verge on the extreme or out-rightly inhabit the lunatic fringe in the opinions they hold. If we are to develop our political system we cannot make them align their views with the mainstream by force.

    Rather than getting all excited over the unrealistic positions of one or two individuals, we should be thinking of how to de-militarise our politics and reduce the role of violence in the scheme of things.

    For as long as we continue to reward the violent with things: Boko Haram with amnesty, kidnappers with generous ransom and politicians using thugs with high office – our politics will never be transformed.

    In Nigeria today, the way to get things from the government and society is by violence or the threat of it. The northern insurgents understand this; ex-Niger Delta militants like Dokubo understand this – after all they wrote the manual.

    It is only when those who control the levers of power start to assert themselves in a proper way that extremists will regain their respect for the state and its institutions. But when we cave in to every extremist waving a gun and a threat, all they will have for the state is enduring contempt.

     

  • House of Reps probe of Kuku, Asari discriminatory, says Clark

    House of Reps probe of Kuku, Asari discriminatory, says Clark

    Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark has expressed reservation over the House of Representatives’ probe of inflammatory statements credited to Presidential Adviser on Amnesty, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, and Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo.

    He demanded to know why the House did not react to similar statements made by prominent northern leaders, notably former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) and former Minister and Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, among others.

    Clark, whose position is contained in an open letter to the Speaker of House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, yesterday, praised and supported the House’s condemnation of Kuku’s and Dokubo’s statement.

    He said the statements are “unwarranted, uncalled for and irresponsible if such careless statements were made.”

    “However, one will like to express strong reservation on the House’s reaction which seems to be one-sided and discriminatory because the House had not condemned similar provocative, seditious and more inflammatory statements made by some Nigerian leaders especially northerners more so when some of the incitement arising from such statements are presently causing serious security problems in Nigeria.”

    He said only the House satisfactory answer to why it kept silent on similar statements made by Buhari, Ciroma, former Kaduna State Governor, Lawal Kaita and others will place the House above “sectional, tribal and religious influence” in the matter.

    “It is pertinent for me to add here that these inciting statements by these Northern leaders and politicians were not made in vain, they were matched by actions. The crisis that followed the 2011 election results was devastating. Election violence erupted in some parts of the North.”

    He advised the House not to restrict its investigation to Asari and Kuku’s statements, adding, “Mr. Speaker, please I urge the House of Representatives to investigate provocative and inflammatory statements made by all Nigerians on this issue because every Nigerian has the right to aspire to be the President of Nigeria, Senate, Speaker of the House and the Chief Justice of Nigeria.”

    “Today, some people believe when certain people achieve certain positions, others feel they have done a favour for them. I repeat that Nigerians must have to change because it is not the Nigerian of our dream” he added.

    Consequently, he reiterated call for National Conference before the nation’s centenary celebration in January 2014.

    He said the conference would help Nigerians decide what they expect and the type of country they want to belong to after 100 years of amalgamation.

  • Reps urge IGP to probe Kuku, Dokubo’s statements

    Reps urge IGP to probe Kuku, Dokubo’s statements

    The House of Representatives yesterday urged Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Abubakar to investigate the Presidential Adviser on Niger Delta Amnesty Programme, Mr Kinsley Kuku, as well as former militant leader Alhaji Mujahideen Asari-Dokubo, for allegedly making statements that may cause disaffection amongst Nigerians.

    The resolution of the House followed the adoption of the prayers of a motion by a member, Ali Sani Madaki (PDP, Kano), on the urgent need to check the utterances of some Nigerians.

    The Niger Delta men’s statements were on the 2015 presidential elections.

    Kuku, at an event in the United States, reportedly declared that there would be chaos in Nigeria, if President Goodluck Jonathan is not re-elected in 2015.

    Asari-Dokubo, at the weekend, reportedly said Nigeria should get ready for a war, if the President is not re-elected for another term.

    The House condemned the statements “in the strongest term” and mandated its Committee on Public Safety and National Security to liaise with the IGP. It urged the committee to keep the House abreast of any development on the matter.

    Madaki regretted that “while Nigerians are fervently praying for peace, some others are out sowing a seed of discord”.

    The lawmaker warned that if the type of inflammatory statements credited to Kuku and Dokubo are not checked, they are “capable of creating disunity and disaffection among the good people of Nigeria”.

     

  • Kuku: Transformation on course

    Kuku: Transformation on course

    Presidential Adviser on Niger Delta Matters Kingsley Kuku has declared that the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan is on course.

    He said many Nigerians have not taken the pains to vet the record of the government in the critical sectors of infrastructural development, aviation, transport and petroleum sectors.

    Kuku, who spoke with reporters in Lagos lamented that the reaction to the security situation in the country have coloured the peoples’ perception about the performance of the administration.

    Rejecting the notion that President Jonathan is not decisive enough, he explained that there was no way he could have resolved insecurity the way former President Olusegun Obasanjo did it in Odi village.

    Kuku described the members of Boko Haram sect as invincible agitators on the rampage, stressing that the President could not go after the invincible bombers.

    The Special Adviser recalled that the decision to wipe out Odi by the previous administration did not achieve the motive of bringing the culprits to book.

    He said it was a double tragedy for the villagers who were displaced because the innocent people suffered for the sins of culprits who had fled the area.

    Kuku pointed out that none of those who attacked security agents were apprehended or affected by the retaliatory measure, maintaining that the decision was ill-advised.

    He solicited for understanding for the style of the President, who he described as a silent achiever.

    Kuku said: “Today, the train moves from Lagos to Kano. The revatalisation of the railway is on. People are not paying attention to this. Also, the Minister of Aviation is doing a lot of turn-around maintenance at the airports, so that our airports can meet the world standard.

    “The Minister of Petroleum is facing challenges because she has refused to do things as they were done in the past when incompetent contractors would sell contracts to middlemen, collect the money and that was the end of the contract”.

    Urging Nigerians to support the administration, Kuku said the President’s style should not be mistaken as a weakness.

    He praised Dr. Jonathan for sustaining the amnesty programme as one of the legacies of his predecessor, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.

    Kuku said the amnesty programme has restored peace to the troubled Niger Delta, adding that the Southsouth states have been enjoying increased revenue earnings because oil exploration and exploitation have not been disrupted.

    However, the Special Adviser disclosed that the amnesty programme will end in 2015, urging the states to set up empowerment schemes for women and youths with special concerns in the zone.

  • Kuku denies funding Ondo poll

    The Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, has denied the allegation that he spent N249 million to fund the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the Ondo State governorship election.

    Kuku, who is also the Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), challenged the Niger Delta Amnesty Watch to show evidence of such expenditure during the poll.

    A statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to Kuku, Daniel Alabrah and made available to reporters in Benin City, said: “Not a dime of the strictly budgeted funds of the amnesty programme was spent on the election.”

    Kuku also denied promising N100 million to some ex-militants in the third phase of the amnesty programme to work for the candidate of the PDP in the election.

    He said: “The PAP is not surprised about this development as it in September alerted the nation to a plot by some politicians and disgruntled individuals, who never wanted the amnesty programme to succeed and had become jittery over the rising profile of the chairman, to cause mayhem in the Niger Delta.

    “It is obvious that the intention of the sponsors is not only to distract Kuku, but to pull him down to derail this laudable but delicate Federal Government programme that has been widely acclaimed as being properly managed.”

     

  • Kuku accuses Mimiko of planning to rig poll

    Kuku accuses Mimiko of planning to rig poll

    The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, yesterday decried the desperation of Governor Olusegun Mimiko to win the October 20 election.

    He said in a statement: “The realisation of an impending defeat at the polls has prompted a naked dance in the full glare of the public by Dr. Mimiko and his fast dwindling band of Labour Party (LP) apologists and supporters.”

    Mimiko, through his campaign organisation, issued a statement, urging President Goodluck Jonathan to call Kuku to order over his alleged activities in the riverine communities of Ondo State.

    He alleged that the Presidential Adviser was attempting to use his position as the Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme to “subvert the October 20 election in favour of his (Kuku’s) Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).”

    But Kuku said: “It is pertinent to respond to this unwarranted attack from the governor, if only to set the record straight and for the nation to be aware of his brand of deceitful politics in the state in the last four years.

    “On the Presidential Amnesty, let me remind Mimiko as he feigns ignorance that the programme and office have beneficiaries and officials from Ondo State with different political affiliations, be it LP,PDP and ACN or persons with no political affiliation.

    “Nobody involved in the amnesty programme has been discriminated against on account of his or her political party preference.

    “It is therefore absurd to accuse me as the Presidential Amnesty Programme Chairman of partisanship, considering how sensitive the amnesty programme is to the economic well-being of the nation.

    “In truth, it is this sensitivity to politics and the ability to manage men and the resources at my disposal that have accounted for the widely-acclaimed successful implementation of Nigeria’s home-grown Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme.

    “It is laughable for Mimiko to attempt to splash mud on and unduly drag the amnesty programme into Ondo politics ahead of the governorship election.

    “It is not a secret that I’m one of the PDP leaders from the state in government at the federal level. Before now, I had been an official of my council, Ese-Odo Local Government and later a member of the Ondo State House of Assembly, where I represented my constituency for one term between 2003 and 2007.

    “Today, by God’s grace, I’m an Ijaw leader from Arogbo community. But I also hail from a unit, a ward, a federal constituency and a senatorial district that have felt the impact of a PDP-led government in the state.

    “The PDP-led government under Dr. Olusegun Agagu had a track record of performance compared to the Mimiko administration. I challenge Mimiko to point to any project he has executed in Arogbo and its neighbouring communities. Let him tell the world.

    “In the riverine communities between Ese-Odo and Ilaje councils, the state government projects completed were those executed by the Agagu administration. Mimiko has not only abandoned the projects he inherited from Agagu, but has gone ahead to abandon the ones he initiated in both local government areas.

    “The fact of the matter is that Ondo State gets its largest revenue from the oil resources in these two local governments. So what have the councils and indigenes done to Mimiko to warrant this crass neglect?

    “Why has his administration decided to institutionalise underdevelopment in these riverine communities? Instead of the governor to face these issues, he is busy pursuing shadows and trying to distract attention from his woeful performance.

    “ Mimiko is my friend. But I cannot sacrifice the development of my area and the well-being of my people on the altar of friendship. My position on the October 20 governorship election is beyond friendship.

    “For the PDP in Ondo State, me and the people of my area, Mimiko has performed woefully and we cannot afford another four years of his mis-governance and litany of unfulfilled promises. Performance should determine who wins the election and not Mimiko’s recourse to blackmail.”

    Kuku said Mimiko is pointing accusing fingers elsewhere when it is a fact that the real person threatening the peace in the Ondo coastal communities is himself.

    “How else can one explain the commencement of his politically-motivated security contract (which operates like the infamous and outlawed Famou Tangbe in Bayelsa State) in the riverine areas just a few months to the election? The governor doles out N70 million monthly to his hired goons in the two local governments in the guise of ensuring security in the coastal communities.

    “We have since found out that the money is being deployed to arm and compromise some of the youths that have embraced the Federal Government amnesty and he is planning to use them to rig the October 20 election.

    “Some of these youths have been engaged in areas with naval and marine police presence and have been patrolling the rivers and creeks, causing tension.

    “The people of these areas have vowed to resist them on the election day if they attempt to rig or steal their votes.

    “It is not out of place to alert President Jonathan and Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Abubakar to the nefarious activities of this Mimiko-hired security outfit and to call for its disbandment if the October 20 poll is to be skirmish-free. Let me restate that Mimiko plans to use this so-called security outfit to rig the election.

    “The PDP in Ondo State is convinced that given Mimiko’s miserable scorecard in the last four years, the electorate are determined to send him packing from the Government House on October 20.”

    The presidential aide urged the security agencies to ensure that the will of the people is not subverted by those who do not mean well for the state.