Jonathan faults Buhari’s militarization of the South

• Says Lai Mohammed lacks morals

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed his reservations over plans by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to overrun the entire South with the Nigerian Army. Accordingly, the former President condemned plans by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-controlled Federal Government to extend the deployment of the Army for a show of force under the guise of Operation Crocodile Smile to the South-South and South West geopolitical zones.

The former President’s reservations were contained in a Facebook posting by his aide on News Media, Reno Omokri.

The former President argued: “Nigeria is no longer under military rule. In a democracy, you separate the military from the Police. The military is not meant to fight criminality within a nation because they are trained to fight a nation’s external enemies.

“It is the police that are trained to fight crime internally. When the military starts doing the job of the police and starts fighting or doing what they call a ‘show of force’, the effect will not be to reduce crime. The effect will be to intimidate people.”

Jonathan further chided Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, for saying that the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) started because the former President lost the 2015 election.

“The insinuations in the press conference given by Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Sunday, accusing the opposition of sponsoring the IPOB and the fact that he mentioned that Nnamdi Kanu preached Nigerian unity during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan is another clear indication that the present administration has not left propaganda mode for proper agenda mode two and a half year into their tenure.

ALSO SEE: We’ll continue to prioritise welfare of Judges – Ambode

“If the government, in which Lai Mohammed serves, knows which opposition members are sponsoring IPOB, then, they should identify them, arrest them and then prosecute them Jonathan challenged,” he had declared.

It was further argued that if the Senate President Bukola Saraki, who is a member of the ruling APC, could be said to be a sponsor of IPOB because he proclaimed that the proscription of IPOB was illegal.

Jonathan challenged further that Lai Mohammed had no moral right to cast aspersions as he has once criticized him for declaring Boko Haram a terrorist group.

“It is our suspicion that Lai Mohammed is talking from history, seeing as he criticized the Jonathan government for banning Boko Haram in a statement he released on June 10, 2013, even though the Jonathan government had gone through due process before proscribing that murderous sect. Perhaps, Lai Mohammed thinks everybody is like him and those he represents” Jonathan said.

The former President admonished the Information Minister to avoid propaganda in performing the responsibilities of his office.