BUHARI FAULTS CRACKDOWN ON BOKO HARAM

Presidential candidate for the Congress for Progressive Change in the 2011 Presidential election, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd), has frowned on the emergency rule in parts of the North. He alleged that innocent civilians were being killed in the states.

Buhari  speaking during a Liberty FM Hausa Service Programme, Guest of the Week, on Sunday in Kaduna said that  Boko Haram members were being killed and their houses demolished unlike the “special treatment” given to the Niger Delta militants by the Federal Government

Buhari, who also blamed President Goodluck Jonathan for failing to tackle the security problems in the country, argued that the challenges started in the Niger Delta.

He said, “What is responsible for the security situation in the country is caused by the activities of Niger Delta militants.

“Every Nigerian that is familiar with happenings knows this. The Niger Delta militants started it all. What happened is that the governors of the Niger Delta at that time wanted to win their elections, so they recruited youths and gave guns and bullets to them to use against their opponents to win elections by force.

“After the elections, they asked the boys to return the guns, and the boys refused to do so. Because of that the allowance that was being given to them by the governors was stopped.”

Buhari said his joining the proposed All Progressives Congress was not all about securing the party presidential ticket for the 2015 elections.

According to him, the formation of the APC and his joining the group is to help effect the needed change in the polity and not just about his presidential ambition.

He declared, “If APC fails to give me the ticket, I will remain in partisan politics and in the party. Anyone the party picks as its candidate, I will support him because I will remain in the APC.”

Besides, Buhari noted that the problem of the country was that of bad leadership, which the APC was out to change.

Source: Punch