Arrest Asari Dokubo Now, APC Tells SSS

 

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as reckless and totally condemnable the threat by Mujahedeen Asari-Dokubo to wage war against Nigeria if President Goodluck Jonathan is defeated in 2015 presidential election, and called on the State Security Service (SSS) to get him arrested.

In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said despite the attacks by oil militants in the Niger Delta and the ongoing insurgency by Boko Haram in some parts of the north, Nigeria has not witnessed a clearer and louder call to war than Asari-Dokubo’s senseless vituperation since the country’s civil war ended in 1970.

It said Nigerians are waiting to see what the SSS, which recently detained for many hours the APC’s deputy national secretary, Nasir El-Rufai over his warning against election rigging in 2015, will do now that an ally of President Jonathan has threatened the very existence of Nigeria, by saying he and his fellow militants would cripple the economy of the country not only in the creeks but also in Nigeria’s territorial waters.

“What on earth gave Asari-Dokubo the confidence to issue threats against a whole nation? If he doesn’t care about elections and democracy, how else could his hero, President Jonathan, have come to power? Does he know the meaning of anarchy? Does he think anyone, no matter how big, is more important than his country or bigger than its constitution?”
‘’When he said President Jonathan must complete the mandatory constitutionally-allowed two terms of eight years or the militants would make Nigeria ungovernable, was he aware that even the North that has become his favourite whipping boy did not complete its own eight years before his kinsman became President?”
‘’It is not Asari-Dokubo’s fault. When we warned against the handing over of the nation’s maritime security to a company owned by an ex-militant in 2012, many thought we were crying wolf where none existed. But the threat by an ex-militant to ensure that no vessel will be allowed to enter the nation’s territorial waters unless President Jonathan is re-elected has shown the dangers inherent in such actions,’’ APC said.

The party wondered why President Jonathan, who said his ambition is not worth anyone’s blood, has neither condemned nor called to order his out-of-control kinsmen like Asari-Dokubo, who speak either on his behalf or for his benefit. It said Asari-Dokubo has overstretched his luck by even trying to dictate to political parties to field only South-South candidates for the presidency in 2015, wondering what gave him the audacity to make such a careless statement.

‘’We in the APC will never be cowed by the senseless, emotional outburst of a man whose sense of decency stretches the size of a coin. We make bold to say that Nigeria will survive and thrive, whether or not some people want it.
“We reiterate the truism that election is the bedrock of democracy, and that anointing of candidates – as Asari-Dokubo would want Nigeria’s political parties to do – is the very antithesis of democracy,’’ the party said.

It stated that the SSS must act immediately or be damned.

‘’There is no better test of the fairness, non-partisanship and professionalism of the SSS than this Asari-Dokubo’s threat to wage war against his own country. If Asari-Dokubo is not above the laws of the land, he must be hauled before the SSS, just like the service did to our deputy national secretary, to explain his statement,’’ APC said.