The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that if indeed anyone should be removed over the protracted insurgency in the Borno state and the entire North-east, it is President Goodluck Jonathan, and not Governor Kashim Shettima.
It, therefore, warned the federal government against going ahead with its reported plan to remove the elected governor of Borno state, and appoint a military administrator to oversee the affairs of the state.
A statement issued yesterday in Ibadan by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the presidency should realise that there was always a limit to impunity, and that if indeed anyone should be removed over the protracted insurgency in the state and the entire North-east, it is President Goodluck Jonathan.
It also said Shettima and the entire people of Borno were the victims in the war being waged by Boko Haram, adding that what they deserved were succour and support, “not further victimisation by a federal government which seems to have run out of ideas on how to subdue the sect.”
The statement said: “’What is happening in the North-east in general and Borno state in particular is failure of leadership at the highest level of government, especially because the imposition of a state of emergency in the three worst-hit states has given the President emergency powers to deal with the protracted crisis.”
APC accused the presidency of using the state of emergency in the North-east to fight its own political battle and get rid of those it perceives as a stumbling block to its interest in 2015.
“If that was not the case, the presidency will not be flying a satanic kite of planning to remove the governor of Borno when it is clear that this governor has done everything humanly possible to support the federal government and the brave men and women fighting the sect.”
