Presidency slams Lai Mohammed on amnesty for ex-militants

The Presidency, yesterday, berated  the interim National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Alhaji Lai Mohammed for dismissing its amnesty programme for repentant Niger Delta militants as a drainpipe.

The APC spokesman had on a national television programme last Wednesday derided the amnesty programme currently being implemented by the Federal Government, saying it amounted to a sheer waste of national resources and energy, having failed to curb militancy, oil theft and pipeline vandalisation.

Mohammed’s verbal attack on the programme came barely six weeks after a similar assault by the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, who also wrote off the amnesty exercise as a waste. But the Presidency in a response to the attack, said Mohammed was economical with the truth and had deliberately refused to acknowledge the wonders brought about by the faithful implementation of the amnesty package by Presidential Amnesty Office, PAO,  headed by Kingsley Kuku.

The statement signed by the Head of Media and Communications of the PAO, Mr. Daniel   Alabrah, said it was only those suffering from the twin malaise of amnesia and diarrhoea that would fail to see the success of the programme, which was initiated by the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua administration in 2009.

Labrah, who acknowledged the rising incidence of oil theft in the Niger Delta, however, exonerated the former militants from the act, blaming it on what he called “international syndicates.”

Clerics berate Oritsejafor for ‘political’ comment

Pastor Oritsejafor

Clergymen from the Niger Delta, led by Prophet Jones Erue, on Wednesday, took on President of Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, for reportedly criticising clerics from the area, for attempting to reconcile the G-7 governors with the Peoples Democratic Party.

Writing under the aegis of Global Peace Relief Initiative, the clerics in a statement signed by Erue, described Oritsejafor’s statement as political and laughable and accused the CAN President of getting involved in politics of calumny and name dropping.

The statement read in part, “We are disappointed that a leader could sit and watch his two children fight while the rest of us suffer only to come and blackmail those who take their time to seek solutions to the crisis.”

The statement said no amount of blackmail or intimidation would deter them from the noble mission of rescuing the country from imminent collapse.

It read, “It is surprising that Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the CAN President, will handle issues of immense gravity and national importance with levity and without discretion.

The first and easiest thing to know about a man is his name; it is a pity that the CAN president does not know the name of the group of clerics he is addressing nor their affiliates.

“Expecting him to have minimal knowledge on what they stand for, will be tantamount to exerting too much pressure on his aging grey matter. We are begging his aides and personal assistants to do their job well and stop exposing this great man of God to disrepute.”

“For the CAN president to say CAN is apolitical is laughable, as the same president is involved in politics of calumny and name-dropping. We want to place it on record that the bishops and clerics in this body may not own private jets, but they are men of unquestionable character, dependable leaders, and stewards of peace and holders of reputable degrees.”

Boko Haram: MEND threatens to kill Muslim clerics, bomb mosques from May 31

FEAR of a religious war  loomed, weekend, in Nigeria, following the threat by Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, to commence the assassination of Muslim clerics, bombing of mosques, hajj camps and Islamic institutions as from May 31.

The exercise, codenamed, Operation Barborossa, according to  spokesman of the militant group, Jomo Gbomo, is to save Christianity in Nigeria from total destruction.

MEND’s threat is obviously in response to the bombing of Christians and Christian worship places by the Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

It said: “On behalf of the hapless Christian population in Nigeria, MEND will, from Friday, May 31, 2013, embark on a crusade to save Christianity in Nigeria from annihilation. “The bombing of mosques, hajj camps, Islamic institutions, large congregations in Islamic events and assassination of clerics that propagate doctrines of hate, will form the core mission of this crusade code named Operation Barbarossa.

“This campaign will not in any way interfere with the ongoing “Hurricane Exodus,” which on Saturday, April 13, 2013, at 1am, swept through the Ewellesuo community, in Nembe, Bayelsa State, leaving the destruction of well 62, belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company in its wake. “We may only consider a ceasefire of Operation Barbarossa if the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, the Catholic Church and Henry Okah, one of the few leaders in the Niger Delta region we respect for his integrity, intervenes.

“Also, the assurance for a cessation of hostilities targeted at Christians in their places of worship, made privately or publicly by the real Boko Haram leadership will make us call off this crusade.
“We have no problem with their attacks on security agencies including the prisons, for their role in extrajudicial killings, torture, deceit and corruption.”

Source: Vanguard