APC In Cahoots With Both Herdsmen And Boko Haram?
Loading ...As we all jubilate with the families of the freed students of Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, we grieve with all families who lost innocent family members in Dapchi, Chibok and many other places where government’s much-touted ‘achievement’ in degrading terrorists and providing security now seem to be another world away.
Over and over, it has been proven that hands down, the current APC government in Nigeria beats all preceding administration, including the colonial ones, in the sinister art of deceitful lies and propaganda.
With fiendish mercilessness, APC’s 2015 campaign milked the unfortunate abduction of Chibok girls for every available ounce of propaganda and disinformation against the preceding administration; its campaign rhetoric and official hoopla from the lying minister had included freeing of the Chibok girl and achieving total defeat of Boko Haram insurgents.
Today, the APC government nurses palpable fear over any scrutiny of its errors in Dapchi or its unusual generosity towards Boko Haram which it promised to defeat but now almost sees as a partner with which to share deep and befuddling confidence.
While we salute the passionate commitment and sacrifice being made by our gallant military and other security agents, we urge the APC Federal Government to reassure worried Nigerian citizens and clear the air over the suspicious benevolence of Boko Haram terrorists in Dapchi, the APC government’s hush-hush ‘negotiations’.
The APC government must ensure that not one more abductions ever takes place; in spite of obviously fake and deceitful propaganda claims that they had defeated Boko Haram, accusations of emboldening the terrorists with huge financial chest and release of its dangerous personnel continue to prevail.
For instance, the London Guardian of October 14, 2016 spoke of how government paid the terrorists a “‘handsome ransom’ worth millions of dollars”. Also, the Wall Street Journal of December 4, 2017 spoke of a swap that “included the release of five captured militants and a total of three million euros, delivered in two drop-offs.”
On January 15, this year alone, the APC government freed 244 Boko Haram members it gave a casual blanket description as being “repentant” even though it is considered global best practice not to ever free anyone suspected of killing even just one uniformed soldier.
Nonetheless, the same pattern of suspicions about likely payment of millions of Euros and release of Boko Haram terrorists pervade the air over the Dapchi incident.
Indeed, the strange manner in which all checkpoints were cleared before the abduction of Dapchi girls on February 19, 2018 and the bizarre manner in which Boko Haram terrorists who returned survivors of Dapchi kidnapping on Wednesday, March 21.were allowed easy passage to their base without a single shot or a monitoring by the much-touted Tsaigumi military drones leaves many Nigerians very baffled.
It is the opinion of popular writer and columnist that “Boko Haram is clearly now being unwittingly lionized, deodorized, decriminalized and mainstreamed by the government”. Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili who is also a leader of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement recalls the President’s promise “To ensure• that Boko Haram meets its waterloo” and calls on government to ensure the release of 112 remaining Chibok girls. Tired of rampant killings by herdsmen, former Minister for Defence, Lt. General TY Danjuma has made the heaviest and most damaging allegations against the armed forces under the APC government.
Yet, in addition to allegations about the payment of millions of Euros and the freeing of hundreds of Boko Haram members who were captured during the Goodluck Jonathan era, many more, including those suspected of playing roles in the grisly killing of our uniformed men, are now being said to be considered for ‘amnesty’.
According to Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a human rights advocacy group which wrote a letter to the Presidency, urging it to drop plans for amnesty to members of the fundamentalist Boko Haram sect, it is more reasonable to pursue justice for the killed, maimed and displaced victims of the terrorist group.
“We believe that granting amnesty to Boko Haram would be an open violation of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 (as amended) and international law and would entail a virtual denial of justice for victims .
“The international community is pushing for accountability for those who commit the worst of human crimes, and no longer tolerating amnesty for war crimes, crimes against humanity or other gross violations of human rights,” stated SERAP while noting that such misplaced amnesty would prevent the government from addressing some fundamental issues, including the alleged complicity of the armed forces and security services in the atrocities committed by the group.
Poverty, lack, hunger, suicide, depression, armed banditry, kidnapping and other violent crimes daily manifest in towns, cities, villages and even on Nigerian roads but this government’s overriding priority is the pursuit of amnesty for Boko Haram!
It is deeply regrettable that the APC government is not a listening government; OBJ wrote letter, IBB sent correspondence, nobel laureate, professor wole soyinka cautioned, GEJ counseled, Archbishop Okogie warned, former supporter Mbaka advised, global entrepreneur Bill Gates counseled, former Defence Minister, Theophilus Danjuma spoke but the handwriting is getting bolder on the wall!
As citizens, we only plead that the APC government should have a rethink and give all Nigerians a measure of relief from mounting anxiety being caused by those whom only the APC government knows.
