Jonathan's Comments On Odi Regrettable – Obasanjo

FORMER President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday reacted to the statement by President Goodluck Jonathan that  the 1999 military operation in Odi, which he ordered as President then, did not solve the problem or stop the killing of soldiers, policemen and innocent civilians in the Niger Delta area by the terrorists and militants, describing it as regrettable. The former President similarly insisted that the Jonathan-led Federal Government must cultivate the courage and the political will to stop the killings by Boko Haram, to find a permanent solution to the problem.

Chief Obasanjo, who was the Presi dent of Nigeria between 1999 and 2007, stated this yesterday in a press statement issued on his behalf by the former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode in response to some statements made by President Jonathan during last Sunday’s Presidential Media Chat.

The President, while answering questions from some Editors during the programme, had said that the military operation in Odi by the Nigerian Armed Forces in 1999, which was ordered by President Olusegun Obasanjo, did not solve the problem or stop the killing of soldiers, policemen and innocent civilians in the Niger Delta area by the terrorists and militants.

The President had said further that all he saw in Odi after he went there on an official visit as Deputy Governor were the dead bodies of old people and children.

 While reacting to the President’s comment yesterday, Chief Obasanjo declared it as factually incorrect.

According to the former President, “With the greatest respect to Mr. President, this is factually incorrect. He (Jonathan) has either forgotten the relevant facts or he has been misinformed.

Fani-Kayode stated, “Whichever way, he (Jonathan) is mistaken and it is important for those of us that proudly served the Obasanjo administration to respond to him in order to clarify the issues, clear the air and set the record straight for the sake of history and posterity”.

“The truth is that the killing of security agents and soldiers with impunity by the Niger Delta militants virtually stopped after the operation in Odi and remained at a bare minimum right up until the time that President Obasanjo left power eight years later in 2007.

“I advise those that doubt this to go and check the records.

“The same thing was done in Zaki Biam in Benue state in the North-Central zone of Nigeria in 2001 after 19 soldiers were murdered in cold blood and then brutally beheaded by some terrorists from that area.

“Again, after the Federal Government's strong military response in Zaki Biam, the killing of security personnel with impunity stopped. 

The objectives of the military operations in both Odi and Zaki Biam were to stop such killings, to eliminate and deal a fatal blow to those that perpetuated them and to discourage those that may seek to carry out such barbarous butchery and mindless violence in the future.

“Those were the objectives and nothing more and clearly those objectives were achieved.

“There is no doubt that after Odi there was still unrest, agitations, protests, kidnappings and the blowing up and sabotage of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta area, but there were hardly any more attacks on or killing of soldiers and security personnel by the terrorists and militants because they knew that to do that would attract a swift and forceful reaction and terrible retribution from the Nigerian military.

“To stop and deter those attacks and killings was the objective of President Obasanjo and that objective was achieved.

“President Goodluck Jonathan was therefore in error when he said that Odi did not solve the problem of killings in the Niger Delta area by the Niger Delta militants.

“Not only did it stop the killings but it is also an eloquent testimony of how to deal with terrorists, how to handle those that kill our security personnel with impunity and how to deter militants from killing members of our civilian population and thinking that they can get away with it.

“If President Obasanjo had not taken that strong action at that time, many more of our civilian population and security personnel would have been killed by the Niger Delta militants between 1999 and 2007.

“By doing what he did at Odi and Zaki Biam, President Obasanjo saved the lives of many and put a stop to the killings and terrorism that had taken root in the Niger Delta area previous to that time”, the statement said.

Continuing, Obasanjo said, “For President Goodluck Jonathan to suggest otherwise is regrettable”.

He insisted that the Federal Government must cultivate the courage and the political will to stop the killings by Boko Haram and to find a permanent solution to the problem.

The statement recalled that when President Obasanjo was in power, he handled such matters decisively, with vigour and with the utmost urgency.

The statement stressed that Obasanjo brought justice to the perpetrators quickly and promptly and he did whatever he had to do to protect the lives and property of the Nigerian people.

“The truth is that the strategy that he (Obasanjo) adopted to fight terrorism and mass murder, worked very well and it was very effective”, the statement said.