[size=18pt]Abuja bombings: S’South elders demand apology from Northern leaders[/size]
By Mudiaga Affe and Jude Onwuamanam with agency report
Friday, 8 Oct 2010





The dust raised by the call on President Goodluck Jonathan to resign appears to be heightening as the South-South Elders and Leaders Forum cautioned the Northern Political Forum to desist from overheating the polity.

The SSELF, in a statement on Thursday, implored the United Nations, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States to intervene and call the NPF to order.

The NPF, a group comprising prominent Northern leaders had on Tuesday said it had lost confidence in Jonathan’s ability to continue to lead the country.

The group’s call for the resignation of the President followed the October 1 bomb blasts in Abuja.

Jonathan on Wednesday fired back at his critics, saying it was “unfortunate that an unprecedented national tragedy has been politicised by people whose only interest is what they can get from the country and not what the country can get from them.”

The Senate and many members of the House of Representatives also took a swipe at the Northern leaders for their “unwarranted comment.”

In its reaction on Thursday, the SSELF, a group of elders and leaders in the South-South, demanded a retraction of the comments by the Northern leaders and an apology from them for slander.

“We wish to caution that if not urgently called to order, these isolated hawkish Northern leaders appear intent on replicating another Somalia or Rwanda incidents just because they believe only them have a right to decide who leads Nigeria,” the South-South elders said in the statement by their Secretary, Chief Ayakeme Whiskey.

They stated that the northern leaders were only trying to whip up sentiments within the military by insinuating that it was the recent changes in the nation‘s defence hierarchy that led to the October 1 bombings.

Incidentally on Thursday, the Chairperson of the AU Peace and Security Council, Dr. Monica Juma, called on the Federal Government to fish out and prosecute those behind the Abuja bombings.

Juma, who is also the Kenyan Ambassador to Ethiopia, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Addis Ababa, that bringing the culprits to book would serve as deterrent to others planning to execute such heinous acts.

“While we condemn the act in its totality, the AU Peace and Security Council wants the Nigerian government to thoroughly investigate the act, arrest and prosecute those behind the bombings, so that such unfortunate incident will not occur again in Nigeria and other parts of Africa,’’ Juma said.

In Jos, Plateau State, the Nigeria Renaissance Network, Goodluck Nigerians Movement and Christian Foundations for Social Justice and Equity, in separate statements said that the Northern leaders were misdirected when they asked the President to resign.

The statements were signed by Mr. Yakubu Dati for the NRN; Mr. Charles Sylvester for the Goodluck Nigerians Movement; and Mr. Joseph Sangosanya for the CFSJE.

But the Civil Rights Congress, disagreed, insisting that the President must resign

The CRC said that the Federal Government’s handling of the blasts only ridiculed the country and raised question on the competence and ability of the President to handle such commissioned tragedy.


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