Why’s APC silent on Davis’ revelation? By Our Reporter / November 2, 2014 / No Comments If there is one issue that members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, will wish Nigerians will forget in a hurry it is the latest revelation by the controversial negotiator for the Islamist terror group, Boko Haram, Dr. Stephen Davis. On Thursday, October 23, the media was agog with reports about the allegation by the terrorists’ negotiator that opposition politicians within the APC are hindering the freedom and release of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in April this year. In an interview Davis granted a UK news network, Channel 4, he stated that: “The Nigerian opposition politicians sponsoring Boko Haram have to be stopped if hundreds of local girls are to be saved.” He revealed, “These individuals are bank-rolling the group’s brutal activities to create instability ahead of the February 2015 Nigerian general election. There would be an endless cycle of evil if the Chibok girls are freed without the group’s sponsors being stopped. It would simply lead to many more young women being taken in their place.” Davis further cautioned, “Tackling the moneymen behind Boko Haram must be an essential part of the West’s anti-terror approach. At the same time, those politicians implicated in the terror funding scandal must be investigated immediately. To do otherwise would mean unleashing untold trauma and devastation on hundreds more innocent Ni¬gerian girls. To these young women and their families, the cost of further inaction would be incalculable.” Davis further cautioned that: “Tackling the moneymen behind Boko Haram must be an essential part of the West’s anti-terror approach. At the same time, those politicians implicated in the terror funding scandal must be investigated without delay. To do otherwise would mean unleashing untold trauma and devastation on hundreds more innocent Nigerian girls. To these young women and their families, the cost of further inaction would be incalculable.” The revelation that APC chieftains are responsible for the delay in the release of the Chibok girls came at a period the federal government is into deep negotiations on how to end insurgency and ensure the hapless girls are released to rejoin their traumatised families. Also, by happenstance, the allegation by Davis came only a few days after a high ranking member of the APC, Chief Audu Ogbe, revealed during Muhamadu Buhari’s presidential declaration that members of the party are the ones bankrolling the activities of the Bring Back Our Girls group. Ogbe’s confession of APC sponsorship of the Bring Back Our Girls, #BBOG campaigns reinforced the suspicions in several quarters of the genuineness of the group’s intentions. Ogbeh said, “We send our greetings to the Chibok parents. We believe that one day they will be reunited with their children. We commend the Bring Back Our Girls movement led by members of our party for their commitment. They remain the only living witnesses that Nigeria still has a conscience.” Prior to Ogbe’s affirmation of APC’s link to the group Nigerians had cause to suspect that there is more to the activities of the #Bringbackourgirls group than meet the eye and that the kidnap of the Chibok girls has political angle to it. It is believed that politicians hijacked the BringBackOurGirls campaign to achieve a hidden agenda. In is rather worrisome that APC has continued for feature within and outside the country anytime, the issue of Boko Haram is on the table. For instance, in July the British government gave indication that it will probe the alleged link between the All Progressives Congress and the insurgent Boko Haram sect. The probe is sequel to increasing questioning of the United Kingdom, UK, top government officials by Members of Parliament, MPs, on the alleged link between the leading opposition party and the insurgent. A prominent member of the British parliament, Mr. Andrew Rosindell questioned the UK foreign secretary, Mr. William Hague, on UK’s engagement with the All Progressives Congress over the Boko Haram menace. This came after a debate in parliament in which Labour MP Sandra Osborne sought to examine allegations of links between APC and the insurgents. Again in September a senior member of the European Parliament, Franz Obermayr MEP, frontally accused the Opposition All Progressive’s Congress of channeling European Parliament financial aid to Boko Haram in the North East of Nigeria and called on the European Commission to investigate alleged concerns over the party’s financial and political allegiance with the terror group. Franz Obermayr, of Austrian Freedom Party, currently the most popular political party in Austria, made the statements in a press release issued on 16 September. Obermayr has been working closely with Stand for Peace, a Muslim-Jewish interfaith organisation dedicated to countering extremism and promoting social and religious cohesion. Oberamyr has also called on EU election observers to closely scrutinise the links between the APC and Boko Haram in the run up to the 2015 presidential election. He said, “In Nigeria’s case, a large proportion of the subsidies from Brussels are used in the north of the country. The federal states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa in the extreme North-East of the country are precisely the areas in which Boko Haram’s campaign of terror is largely tolerated by the authorities. The aforementioned sub-republics are governed by the All Progressive Congress, APC.” Obermayr further declared that all further European Parliament cooperation and funding to Nigeria should be subject to the findings of a report into the close relationships between political parties and terrorist groups in the country, suggesting that all development aid should be immediately suspended if any wrong doing is exposed. Turning to individuals in the APC, Mr. Obermayr raised the US Embassy memo which states that former Vice-President and 2015 Presidential hopeful, Atiku Abubukar, received money from Al-Qaeda to, “destabilise the south of the country” and the recent defection of Femi Fani-Kayode from the APC because of their “clear Islamist agenda and sympathies with Boko Haram”. Further, in a statement that highlights widespread concern ahead of the 2015 presidential elections, he said: “Even the most senior man in the APC, former Nigerian head of state and presidential candidate, Mohammadu Buhari, was quoted in the British newspaper The Guardian back in 2001 calling for sharia law to be introduced throughout Nigeria, including the Christian-dominated south.” Stand for Peace have long investigated Boko Haram and their international financial and political connections, previously exposing links between the extremist sect and the controversial UK based charity the “Al-Muntada Trust”. The allegations will cast a severe blow to the APC who have struggled to challenge its alleged sponsorship of Boko Haram on the international stage, particularly in the UK. Nigerians are worried that since Davis linked the APC to the delay in the release of the Chibok girls the national leadership of the party has kept sealed lips over the issue unlike its previous reaction to an earlier revelation by the same terrorists’ negotiator. When Davis alleged that former Borno State Governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, have connection with the Boko Haram sect the APC was very prompt in calling on the federal government to hand them over to the International Criminal Court, ICC, to face trial. APC shouted at the rooftop that Davis’ confessions showed that the sponsors of Boko Haram are not only within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party but also that they are closer to the Presidency. The APC, which made the claims at a briefing in Abuja by its National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said the Department of State Security Service, DSS, and the Directorate of Military Intelligence, DMI, could not pretend that they do not have any information on these men. Odigie-Oyegun, who preceded his briefing with Arise Television’s Davis’ interview on a big slide, said: “The truth is finally out. We have been vindicated. We have no hand in the Boko Haram insurgency. The raison d’etre of our party is the well-being and security of Nigerians. “The sponsors of Boko Haram are within the PDP and the Presidency. “The man who exposed these Boko Haram sponsors is a Jonathan-appointed negotiator. He has no axe to grind, neither does he have any motive to shield the APC or portray the PDP/Presidency in bad light. In fact, if he had any sympathy at all, it is for the man who hired him, President Jonathan. He added that: “Now that the cat has been let out of the bag and the real sponsors of Boko Haram have been exposed, we hope President Jonathan will summon the courage to do the right thing: hand over the identified Boko Haram
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 11:17:27 +0000
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