Buhari Not Responsible for Boko Haram, Says Jonathan's campaign Team

http://huhuonline.com/index.php/more-news1/4961-buhari-not-responsible-for-boko-haram-says-jonathan-s-campaign-team

The President Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation led by former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmadu Ali, on wednesday finally absolved the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Muhammadu Buhari, of any link with the Boko Haram that has taken over some territories in the northern part of the country.

In a maiden press conference organised by the head of the media team of the organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode, the organisation said Buhari has nothing to do with the sect.

It is not known why Fani-Kayode, who had also accused Buhari in previous articles would suddenly backtrack.

There had been several allegations from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as well as the presidency linking Buhari to insurgency in the country.

Dr. Doyin Okupe, the Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, had also linked Buhari with the Boko Haram in December, 2014 when he alleged that Buhari had at one time said attacks on Boko Haram are attacks on the north.

Also in April, 2013, the presidency accused Buhari of being the major sponsor of the Boko Haram, adding that this was the reason the former Army General refused to contribute meaningfully to the government's effort to combat terrorism in the country.

Okupe, who spoke at that occasion, alleged that Buhari had previously been credited with a statement that he would make the country ungovernable.

Okupe had said: "everybody in this country knows that it was Buhari who vowed that if he did not win the election, he would make the country ungovernable for this President Goodluck Jonathan.

"As a former Head of State, have you ever seen him (Buhari) visiting Borno or Yobe States? Have you ever seen him show sympathy to people, either Christians or Muslims that have been killed during these attacks by Boko Haram? Have you see him as a leader, a man who traversed the entire length and breadth of the North especially to canvass for votes seeking an end to the violence? Why is it that he cannot use that same clout that he has to get leaders together and say we must put an end to this carnage? He finds it comfortable to shift the blame to other people."

He had asked if there was any intervention proposed by Buhari as a leader, who is from that region to help Nigeria and the North out of the unfortunate development.

"Nigerians should ask him, as a former Head of State and stakeholder in the Nigeria project and a man who wants to be President again, if he would want Nigeria to be destroyed up to a point before he can try to wade in? It does not work that way," Okupe had said.

But Fani-Kayode's statement on Wednesday in Abuja, Nigeria's capital city, has put paid to such allegations.

Fani-Kayode however said that because of the alleged anger shown by the APC when the sect was proscribed by the Federal Government, the APC might be in support of the group.