– ELDERS and leaders of the
South-South region have condemned the
activities of Boko Haram, describing it as an
orchestrated plot by a tiny minority to make
the country ungovernable under President
Goodluck Jonathan.
South South Peoples Assembly, an umbrella
body of people of the region, in a statement
by Ambassador Mathew Mbu, Justice
AdolphusKaribi-Whyte (rtd) and Dr. Kalada
Iruenabere called on President Jonathan to
fish out sponsors of the terrorist religious
sect for prosecution.
They called Boko Haram a political tool in the
hands of a small group it described as
“power merchants and economic parasites,”
seeking to achieve their earlier threat made
during the struggle for Jonathan’s
presidency to destabilise the nation.
The group said: “SSPA does not believe that
the Boko Haram of today is the offshoot of
the one crushed by the Yar’Adua
administration. Rather, we are convinced
that the name has become a metaphor for a
more sophisticated struggle for political
power. We daresay that it is a tool in the
hands of those who threatened to make this
country ungovernable and who lectured us
on the inevitability of violent change in the
heat of the struggle for the Jonathan
presidency.
“Boko Haram cannot be pursuing a religious
agenda. It should be obvious that exploding
bombs in Abuja will do very little to advance
the cause of its fanatical Islamic ideology.
“On the contrary, we are convinced that the
group’s agenda, clearly that of its urbane
sponsors, is to make the presidency of
Goodluck Jonathan unworkable.”
Source: Vanguard, 29th August 2011.