The National Coordinator of the Oodua Peoples
Congress, Gani Adams, said his group is opposed to a former Lagos Governor,
Bola Tinubu and his party, the All Progressives Congress, because Mr. Tinubu
instructed governors of the South-West states not to deal with or empower the
OPC.
Mr. Adams said this at a press conference in
Lagos on Tuesday in reaction to reports that his organization plans to disrupt
the forthcoming general elections.
He said while Mr. Tinubu plotted to destroy
the OPC by denying it of government patronage, President Goodluck Jonathan has
been magnanimous, awarding pipeline protection contracts to leaders of the
organisation and other militants across the country.
“Deliberately Tinubu instructed all the
governors (South-west governors) don’t work with OPC, don’t empower OPC, don’t
associate yourself with OPC,” Mr. Adams said.
“Ask our people from the south west, if you
threat us very well, why should we get an opportunity from your enemy? If you
gave us jobs, if you empower us, we would turn down the offer from the federal
government. Because you neglected us, you don’t want the organization to exist
anymore.
Mr Adams admitted that he, Frederick Faseun,
and another militant leader from Ondo state were given multi billion naira
contracts to protect pipelines, saying as Nigerians they have a right to share
from the nation’s commonwealth.
He said, “They alleged that some ethnic
militia collected nine billion, what I know is that President Goodluck Jonathan
gave us a contract to protect pipeline and in that pipeline contract, the
analysis is that Nigeria is losing 1.3 trillion naira every year to vandals.
And when you see how much they will pay us for a year, in six zones- we have
three zones in south west, three in South-South. I have only one in South-West;
Dr. Fasheun has one and another guy in Ondo has one.
“The entire money NNPC will spend for us to
protect the pipeline is not up to four billion for the six zones. You know what
happened, they intentionally wrote the propaganda to affect the rally of last
Monday, and at the same time, they haven’t given us a dime for the contract.
President Jonathan has not given us money; we are just planning on how to start
the job now. You cannot get money, it’s not a contract of buying something.
“As a Nigerian, we have a right to share from
the commonwealth and that does not mean they have induced us. Tinubu is the
chairman of OandO, and it’s an oil company and hardly will you see any governor
in Nigeria that does not have interest in oil business. Hardly will you see any
that minister does not have interest in oil business. Look, the south-south has
been benefiting from the Amnesty package from the past four or five years. We
have never benefited from it.”
The OPC leader described the All Progressive
Congress as a party that strives on propaganda.
The OPC leader said his organisation wants the
country to move forward and has decided to support the re-election bid of
President Jonathan.
“We are not saying because we are supporting
President Jonathan, we should be an enemy of other political parties. When you
watch carefully, you will realize that nothing less than 23 political parties
partially support President Goodluck Jonathan, so we are not here to harm any
other political party,” he said.
Speaking on the protest by the OPC for the
removal of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s chair, Attahiru
Jega, which many Nigerians, particularly the All Progressive Congress termed a
violent protest, Mr. Adams described the APC as a party that thrives on
propaganda.
“We deliberately kept quiet for one week to
make sure that they lied to the extent that we would come out to tell the world
that 85 per cent information coming from the APC is fallacy.
“You can’t win an election based on fallacy or
propaganda and they have used their strength to concentrate on CCN protest
rather than to go from house to house to campaign.
“If you watched newspapers, you will see some
parasites signing different press releases that Gani Adams should resign, you
will see Shina Akinpelu, and then you see Monsuru Akande again, so you see the
level of propaganda? We even investigated; the second press release was
released from the state (Lagos) secretariat in Acme, coordinated by Ajomale.
Why are they doing that?
He maintained that the protest was not against
Mr. Tinubu or the APC.
“We did not protest against Tinubu or APC. Why
are they supporting the wrongdoing of Jega? I think most of them are product of
free and fair election of 1993, so we should upgrade the conduct of our
election and what happened yesterday has justified our protest.
“I don’t see why you should deny 19 per cent
which is 12 million registered voters of their right to enfranchise. And if you
recall, in the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the number of Nigerians who
made the difference for MKO Abiola was 14 million. By the time you deny 12
million people the chance to exercise their right, certain signal is coming,
but I’m appealing to Nigerians, they should not allow Jega to provoke them. Let
us accept the faith but let the history run against Jega.”
OPC
not a threat to election
Mr. Adams said his group is not a threat to
the coming elections and was not sponsored by President Jonathan.
“Well, we have witnessed 1999 election, we
didn’t get involved in violence, we witnessed the 2003, we didn’t disrupt the
election, 2007 same thing happened, 2011 same thing happened, why should we
disrupt election,.
“We challenge them, let them take the pictures
to the police to investigate and identify those who destroyed that billboard.
The picture that was first sent to the internet was a picture of an event held
on eighth of December by Dr. Fredrick Fasheun. So I’m appealing to concentrate
on how to win the election and the heart of the electorate and not to be
concentrating to destroy the character of anybody who supports President
Goodluck Jonathan
“We have been funding our organization before
election; you will realize that we have not less than 25 programs in a year.
Who is funding those programs? Why should they insinuate that anything that
comes from us because of our belief to support President Jonathan that it’s
because of money?”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment