*Tells ex-President to stand trial if indicted
*As Atiku, PDP, Ezeife, Osita Okechukwu react
“The question we will now ask is, by saying number three citizen and number four citizens of this country are now living in fear as a result as of what could happen to them from this government, is Obasanjo crying out for himself or he is merely crying out to blackmail President Buhari and the security chiefs so as for them not to go ahead bringing to justice the politicians he leads in his Third Force, who have been discovered to be sponsors of the destabilisation and killings in parts of the country?”
The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), the umbrella organization for more than 400 Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the country has told former President Olusegun Obasanjo to prove existence of threats to his life as claimed in his Friday statement.
The group said even at that, the Obasanjo, if indicted by any probe by the Buhari Administration should know that he must stand trial.
In a statement published in Vanguard on Saturday, the TMG speaking through its chairperson, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, said what Obasanjo said in his statement does not sound like real threat.
“This does not sound like a real threat though. However the former President has raised an issue that deserves attention, he needs to prove since he has alleged the existence of threats.
“However nobody is above the law, if he has questions to answer, the government should be free to take him up on it after all former President of South Africa was tried for corruption, so what’s is wrong in trying him? The war against corruption should have no bounds,” the TMG chairperson said.
According to the report, the Obasanjo’s statement also attracted reactions from other Nigerian persons and groups such as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Governor of Anambra State Chukwuemeka Ezeife, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON).
While Atiku, in a strongly worded statement, warned against aggravating the situation in the country with the arrest of Obasanjo who he described as a historical figure in the emergence of the country’s democracy, the embattled PDP currently having its leaders and members of former government of Goodluck Jonathan enmeshed in court cases for various reasons of corruption, crimes and others, saw the Obasanjo’s crying out as opportunity for it to have its pounce on the Buhari Administration as it affirmed that the reported plot confirmed its stance of the machinations of the administration.
Both spoke just as the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) insisted that Obasanjo, like every other Nigerian, was not above the law and should be tried whenever he is indicted over a crime.
Third Republic governor of Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife warned last night that framing Obasanjo would turn out to be a final bus stop for the President Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government.
Affirming that the administration had succeeded in pulling the Igbo down and that the same attempt would fail against Obasanjo, Ezeife warned: “Buhari will not, should not and cannot harass former President Obasanjo for his political position. There are boundaries to everything we do in life, there are boundaries.”
On what could happen if Obasanjo is arrested, he said, “It means that the system has completely broken down. They were doing it to Igbo people. Pull Igbo down. They started with Ibeto, they went to Capital Oil, they went to Innoson, then they went to all those who were importing container, their containers were being seized.
“So when there were doing pull Igbo down, we only lamented but if he wants to pull Obasanjo down, he will pull himself down.”
In his reaction to the Obasanjo’s allegation, the Director General, Voice of Nigeria, Mr. Osita Okechukwu a confidant of President Buhari accused the former president of being afraid of his own shadow.
Okechukwu also queried the source of what he described as the stupendous wealth allegedly gathered by Obasanjo between 1999 and now, adding that one who lives in a glass house should avoid throwing of stones.
Okechukwu said, “I don’t want to work on speculation but he who lives in a glass house should not throw stones. Obasanjo is afraid of his own shadow, I don’t believe what he is saying.
“There is need for Obasanjo to tell us how his wealth came about between 1999 and now. Even if monies were donated to him, he should tell us who and who did that for him.”
Obasanjo had in the press statement alleged a plot garnered from high level security officials to frame him over yet unknown financial scam and use that as justification to put him out of circulation in the light of his opposition to what he described as Buhari’s incompetent rule.
Affirming that he had in the past been subjected to rigorous investigations without blemish by the country’s anti-crime agencies, Obasanjo said he was again ready to subject himself to an independent investigation even as he alleged that those after him did not mind harming his life.
What however was taking the matter too far in the Obasanjo’s statement is the aspect where he threw his weight behind the embattled Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who has been indicted by some arrested suspects said to have led an almost unprecedented crime as huge as that of Offa banks’ robbery killing 33 persons including nine police officers.
He said: “We are currently in a nation where the Number Three citizen is currently being harangued and the Number Four citizen is facing similar threat within the same Government they serve. There is a groundswell of our nationals that live in fear that they could be hounded, harassed, maimed or even killed as the battle for 2019 takes this worrisome dimension.”
Reacting to this particular aspect of the former President’s statement, a Respondent who spoke under condition of anonymity said, “As a former President, Obasanjo is supposed to know that for him to throw his weight behind Bukola Saraki who has conspicuously proved himself above the law in this country particularly as he has always waged wars against security agencies whenever they made attempt to ask him questions for offences he is alleged to have committed either on corruption or criminal matters, Obasanjo should know he has betrayed the country that made him what he is.
“The question we will now ask is, by saying number three citizen and number four citizens of this country are now living in fear as a result as of what could happen to them from this government, is Obasanjo crying out for himself or he is merely crying out to blackmail President Buhari and the security chiefs so as for them not to go ahead bringing to justice the politicians he leads in his Third Force, who have been discovered to be sponsors of the destabilisation and killings in parts of the country?” He asked.
