Emergency rule, counterproductive – ACN

…Asks National Assembly to reject it

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has described the declaration of a state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States by President Goodluck Jonathan as lacking in original thinking, and therefore asked the National Assembly to reject it.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said if the use of force was capable of ending the Boko Haram crisis, it would have ended a long time ago.

It said while the President was right in expressing outrage over the mindless killings and wanton destruction by the insurgents, he was wrong in proposing more of the same measures that have failed to yield results.

”If the medicine given to a patient has not cured his or her illness, is it not futile to prescribe more of the same medicine for the patient? If the declaration of a state of emergency in 15 local government areas in four states in 2011 has not curbed the activities of the insurgents, why extend such measure to other areas? If the use of force in the affected states have failed to curtail the activities of the insurgents, why send in more troops? Add a comment

MAIDUGURI/YOLA, Nigeria, May 15 - Nigeria launched a military campaign on Wednesday to flush Islamist militants out of bases in its border areas after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the northeast.

Nigerian troops moved into the region in large numbers, part of a plan to rout an insurgency by the Boko Haram Islamist group that has seized control of significant parts of the region. Add a comment

Different strokes for different folks. While other people are resisting a State of Emergency or finding ways to avoid it, the long suffering people of Southern Kaduna, who have been at the receiving end of violent Islamic groups and Fulani herdsmen have cried out to the president to impose a state of emergency in their area. It would be recalled that terrorists had written a letter to the people of Zonkwa warning them that they would unleash death and blood on them because of the way they voted in the 2011 elections. NaijaPundit had exclusively published that letter over a year ago. Add a comment

Respected Islamic cleric, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, has called on the Federal Government to also impose a State of Emergency in the President's home state of Bayelsa. Apparently, he wants the Emergency imposed because of the recent killings of 9 police men in Bayelsa. However, Gumi was strangely quiet about Nasarawa state where about 50 police men were killed in cult violence involving the Ombatse cult.

Below is Gumi's statement. You may also read it directly on his facebook page here; Add a comment

Northern Elders Visit Borno, Say Northerner Must Emerge President in 2015

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) yesterday insisted that the presidency should be shifted to the region in 2015 general elections, as a mark of equity and justice.

Secretary of the NEF, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, made the remarks when he led other members of the forum on a courtesy visit to Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima at the Government House in Maiduguri.

Abdullahi, a one-time Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, insisted that by 2015 the North will no longer misuse its right of producing the president as it did in 2011, blaming such failure to the connivance of some state governors of the region. Add a comment

30 Minutes After Emergency Rule Declaration Boko Haram Kills Borno CAN Secretary

Barely 39 minutes after President Goodluck Jonathan imposed a State of Emergency on three states of the North, the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, reacted by killing the Borbo State Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Reverend Faye Pama Musa.

Reverend Musa was shot and killed at his residence in Maiduguri, Borno state.