Former President Goodluck Jonathan has taken President Muhammadu Buhari to task over his plan to extend the military ahow of strenght to the South South and the South West geo-political zones.
The former President, who advised President Buhari to thread with caution, stated this in a Facebook post on Tuesday. The post was signed on his behalf by one of his aides, Reno Omokri.
He said: “However, we want to advise the Buhari administration, which has announced plans to extend the military show of force to the South-South and the South-West through Operation Crocodile Smile, to tread with caution.
“Nigeria is no longer under military rule. In a democracy, you separate the military from the police. The military is not meant to fight criminality within a nation because they are trained to fight a nation’s external enemies.
“It is the police that are trained to fight crime internally. When the military starts doing the job of the police and starts fighting or doing what they call a ‘show of force’, the effect will not be to reduce crime. The effect will be to intimidate people.”
In the same vein, the former President also berated the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, for alleging that the activities of IPOB started because he lost the 2015 election.
It would be recalled that Mohammed had said looters and disgruntled elements in the opposition were the chief sponsors of IPOB.
“The insinuations in the press conference given by Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Sunday, accusing the opposition of sponsoring the IPOB and the fact that he mentioned that Nnamdi Kanu preached Nigerian unity during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan is another clear indication that the present administration has not left propaganda mode for proper agenda mode two and a half year into their tenure.
“If the government, in which Lai Mohammed serves, knows which opposition members are sponsoring IPOB, then they should identify them, arrest them and then prosecute them.”
Mr. Jonathan also asked if the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who is a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, could be said to be a sponsor of IPOB since he had faulted the proscription of the group and their categorisation as a terrorist organisation.
