Jonathan, PDP Under Fire For Sponsoring OPC, MASSOB Protests

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, Nigeria 2015 Election Tuesday, March 17th, 2015

By Ayo Balogun (Lagos), Ignatius Okpara (Enugu) – The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned the syndicated demonstration the PDP is sponsoring all over the country to disrupt the forth-coming general election.

The party said that the syndicated protests by the Movement for the Emancipation of Soverign State of Biafra, MASSOB and Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) are desperate efforts by a dying government to create confusion and trouble so as to sabotage the election when it had become obvious to the PDP that it had lost the support of Nigerians in the coming election and warns that more of such purchased mercenary protests are in the offing as we inch close to the critical 2015 election.

In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Joe Igbokwe, the party said that it is instructive that the purchased campaigners are destroying campaign posters and bill boards of the APC in their mercenary traits and said this tells so much of the mission they are sponsored to do.

“No one should be surprised at what is happening today because it reflects the last acts of a dying junta desperate to use every means to remain in power. It is obvious that Jonathan and PDP have given up hence the open and bizarre sponsorship, bribery and inducement to militia groups through generous dollar bribes and contract bazaars, for the purpose of creating enormous crisis and confusion in a bid to scuttle the coming elections.

“We see the present actions of OPC as spurred by the multi billion Naira contract that was recently given to their leaders by a desperate Jonathan as bribery to secure such hatchet jobs they are doing at present.

“Nigerians note that the action of the hired mercenaries like OPC on the streets of Lagos, where they are visiting destruction on APC campaign materials, is an act of war, as the intended purpose is to provoke monumental crisis that will stop the election through widespread violence that may lead to war.

“PDP is desperate to plunge the country into such war that will make both Rwanda and Burundi a child’s play considering the mix of the country’s population. We see the desperation of the PDP to remain in power when it is obvious that Nigerians don’t want it, as a clear and present danger and we alert the world to hold the PDP responsible for any breach of security in Nigeria today,” the party said.

CLO Slams Jonathan, PDP For Patronizing MASSOB

Meanwhile, the South east zonal office of the Civil Liberties Organisation CLO, has raised an alarm over what it described as alleged selected justice by the President Goodluck Jonathan’s led federal government, as it concerns the advancement of Biafra activism in the Nigeria.

The group noted that while some members of Movement for the Actualisation for the Soverign State of Biafra, MASSOB, that protested the removal of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, chairman, Mr. Attahiru Jega last weekend, were left untouched, some of their colleagues in the same struggle, led by Mr. Benjamin Onwuka, are currently facing a treason offence.

South east zonal Director of CLO, Barrister Olu Omotayo, stated this in Enugu, following a demonstration carried out simultaneously in Enugu, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi and Imo states by MASSOB, calling for the sack of INEC national chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, on the ground that he was not capable of conducting free and fair polls.

His words:

“It is no news that Benjamin Onwuka and 10 other Biafra activists are standing trial for treason before an Enugu Federal High Court presided over by Hon. Justice D.V. Agishi.

“It should be noted that part of the offences leveled against the activists was raising of the Biafran flag at the Enugu State Broadcasting Corporation and the state Government House.

“The Attorney-General of the Federation had maintained before the court that the Biafra activists belong to an outlawed violent group and also maintained that Biafra flags and other emblems depicting the state of Biafra are outlawed.

“The most surprising thing in Enugu city during the protest was the full police protection accorded a faction of Biafra activists campaigning for the removal of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega.

“What happened at Enugu shows that the country has actually jettisoned the rule of law which is the cardinal principle in any civilised democracy and we are now operating the Rule of the Jungle.”