Second Republic Governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa has made allegations against the Federal Government as concerns the Chibok girls abduction.
Musa said the Federal Government may be trying to deliberately cause instability in the North so as to prevent the 2015 elections from holding.
He made the claim in an interview with Vanguard Newspapers.
Excerpts:
It has been 147 days that the Chibok school girls were abducted and all attempts to rescue them have been futile. Some say there is a conspiracy somewhere. Do you think so?
I think their abduction is very suspicious because we have to face the reality. We are dealing with politics particularly the 2015 elections, which encourages the incumbent to destabilise the country so that elections will not hold in 2015, in which case the provisions of the constitution will prevail. It means that the president will continue.
If the election is conducted for whatever reasons, it is rigged because of the insecurity in the country. The abduction of the girls is part and parcel of the Boko Haram and so, this is a serious issue because such thing cannot happen without the government getting serious information on the matter.
Everything is mysterious and nobody knows anything about the abducted girls. The government has not come out with any reliable information about the whereabouts of the girls.
There were some information a few months ago that international organizations have been involved in the identification of the whereabouts of the girls.
It is unfortunate that in spite of the involvement of the international security agencies, the girls are still missing. Nothing is convincing and if there is no government conspiracy, how can this happen? There is no information and action on the part of the government.
There is also another aspect of it, there were reports that 57 of the girls had escaped and then, we now hear a lot of talks about these escaped girls. We don’t know where they are being kept, we hear also that they are being offered scholarship abroad. How sure are we that these are the girls being talked about? You see, everything is mysterious.
How do you see the allegations of Australian terrorism negotiator, Dr Steven Davis, that former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Azubuike Ihejirika and former Borno State Governor, Ali Modu Sheriff are sponsors of Boko Haram?
It is not impossible because it means there is a conspiracy for political reasons in the action. Therefore, these allegations should be looked into.
Do you think the president has the political will to go after these alleged Boko Haram sponsors?
He may not even have the moral will because the government itself has been accused of conspiring with an interest to do this and to cover it up. There should be a judicial commission of inquiry over this because the political allegations are becoming very serious.
The Boko Haram insurgents have taken over some communities and towns in Boko State and also hoisted their flags there, what signal does this send?
First of all, it shows that the issue we are facing is not just insecurity but an attempt on the sovereignty of Nigeria. This is serious.
How can the activities of these insurgents be nipped in the bud because it is taking a dangerous dimension?
The only way we can do it peacefully because the government has lost moral credibility on this is to have free, fair and transparent elections in this country.
For this to happen, we need to rely on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, but unfortunately, INEC is also part of the problem.
And so, the only thing we can do peacefully is to ask the National Assembly to do something about it and really ensure that there is free, fair and transparent elections leading to a legitimate government. If we can have a legitimate government by any means, we can successfully address this issue.
The Northern Elders Forum has given President Jonathan an ultimatum to bring back the abducted Chibok girls or forfeit 2015. What is your take?
This is nonsense because you cannot identify who these Northern elders are. You cannot identify their relevance because anybody can call himself an elder.
Those who can be referred to as elders can only be elected representatives of the people. In that case, they can be members of the National Assembly from the North or State Houses of Assembly and local government councils. These are the elders. These are the ones who can legitimately represent the people. Let us forget about these sectional elders.
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