By Bode Olagoke and Samuel Ogidan, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Jonathan administration of sponsoring ethnic militias to foment trouble before, during and after the forthcoming general elections, saying the alleged N9 billion recently paid out to some ex-militants and ethnic militias was aimed at mobilising them to scuttle the polls.
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the protests by MASSOB last week seeking the sack of INEC chairman Attahiru Jega was orchestrated by the government as part of its continuing efforts to sabotage the elections.
It said the next group that has been mobilised to protest against Jega and the use of card readers is the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), which is also a beneficiary of the N9 billion payout ostensibly for pipeline protection, but in reality to “prepare the ethnic militias for their reprehensible role in scuttling the elections”.
The APC said more ethnic militias would be enlisted by the administration to continue the protest against Jega and the card readers in order to give the impression that Nigerians want Jega sacked and are also against the use of card readers.
The party expressed sadness that a president who inherited a united nation has done everything he could to divide the country along ethnic and religious lines, including patronising ethnic militias who serve no other purpose than to champion sectional interests at the expense of national unity.
It wondered why Jonathan would pay such money to a handful of people at a time of great economic downturn and falling naira, as well as in a situation in which many states cannot even afford to pay their workers because of dwindling allocation from the federation account.
It said: ”A profligate government that has been bribing people with dollars and ferrying huge funds around practically to buy votes has outdone itself by paying out all of 9 billion naira to a few Nigerians, with less than three weeks to the elections.
“Shortly after the payment, some self-serving groups started organising protests that, for all intents and purposes, are being orchestrated to scuttle the polls. This is a shameful show by the federal government.”
In its reaction, however, the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisation (PDPPCO) has dismissed as false the APC’s claims.
The Director of Media and Publicity of the PDPPCO, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, also justified the employment and compensation given to families of the victims of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) employment tragedy, saying that the APC’s criticism of the gesture was unfortunate.
According to him, “Once again, Lai Mohammed has indulged in lies on behalf of his lying party, the APC. It is not true that the PDP or the federal government is sponsoring ethnic militias. It is also not true that N9 billion has been allocated for that purpose.
“It is rather the APC that has consistently supported and sponsored the Boko Haram both in substance and in their utterances over the last few years.
“This recourse to telling a lie every day by the opposition party will not in any way assist them in achieving their objectives.
“We will remain focused on the issues. We will talk about their weaknesses and we will also talk about the achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan on why it is that it is important that he is re-elected back into power on March 28. That is our focus.
“We have said it before and we will say it again: these people have become prisoners of their own delusions; they have become victims of their own hallucinations and fantasies. They have become paranoid such that they are sleeping and hiding under their beds.
“They are running from their own shadows and what we are witnessing is simply the judgment of God on them. They have lost their peace. They are running when nobody is chasing them and that is why they are saying these things.
“It is really a pity that it has degenerated to this point. But the fact of the matter is that no serious-minded persons will take them seriously when they talk like this.”
On the APC’s claim that the PDP and the federal government were trying to garner cheap political profit from the calamity that befell some young Nigerians with the employment and compensation paid to the families of the affected victims of the NIS employment tragedy, Fani-Kayode said: “It is not the PDP that feeds off the blood of other individuals; it is not the PDP that is a party of ritualists and cultists; it is not the PDP that encourages and supports terrorist organisations that have slaughtered about 35,000 people over the last three years.
“It was the APC that did that when Lai Mohammed said that it was unconstitutional and unjust for the federal government to proscribe Boko Haram.
“We do not feed off calamity; they are the ones that do that and they consistently do that and they will continue to do that and that is why we are saying they are not fit to take power in this country.
“Mr. President’s gesture concerning the victims of the calamity that took place last year when all those young people were killed was a noble gesture and was simply an acknowledgment of the fact that these people died under very, very sad circumstances.
“It was simply an attempt to alleviate the suffering and pain of the families of those that were killed and no right-thinking person will read any other meaning to that.”