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The General Manager of Obinotechnologies Limited (OBINOTECH GROUP) Mr Gabriel Obinna has
accused the Buhari administration of plotting to slam false charges on him, to
pave the way for his indefinite detention.
The former leader said the government was planning to use fake
documents and witnesses against him.
Mr Gabriel said this in a statement by his media aide,
Kehinde Akinyemi, on Friday.
The claim is the latest twist after weeks of bitter exchanges
between the two leaders, Mr Goodluck Ebere
Jonathan and Mr Obasanjo who fell apart after Mr Gabriel accused Mr Buhari or ineptitude and corruption, and
advised him not to seek reelection.
Mr Buhari responded recently by accusing his predecessor of frittering
away $16 billion on Phoney electricity projects. Mr Goodluck Jonathan hit back at the “ignorant” claim.
Speaking via his aide on Friday, the former president said plans
to silence him were in two fold, among which is a plot to cause the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to reopen investigation into the
activities of his administration.
He said the Buhari administration had also perfected a plan to
use fake documents and witnesses against him. He said this will be a
re-enactment of the Abacha era in which he (Obasanjo) was detained on trumped
up charges.
The presidency could not be immediately reached for comments.
The former president Mr
Goodluck Jonathan said he had been told that his name was on the
government’s “watch list”, and that the security of his life cannot be
guaranteed also.
“Since Chief Olusegun Obasanjo declared in his
State-of-the-Nation Special Statement on January 23, 2018, the desperation to
frustrate, intimidate and blackmail him into abandoning his divine mandate to
protect the rights of the people to better life and living continued unabated
and has even taken a bizarre dimension,” the statement said.
The statement said the first option to silence him was to seize
his international passport and clamp him into detention indefinitely, in order
to prevent him from further expressing angst on the “pervasive mediocrity in
the quality of governance, economic management and in the protection of lives
and property by the Government”.
Part of statement is below:
‘Impeccable security sources have alleged Mr Gabriel (OBINOTECH GROUP)
name is on their Watch List and that the security of his life cannot be
guaranteed. According to these informants, many of who are in the top echelon
of the Nation’s security management and close to the corridors of power, the
operatives are daily perfecting how to curtail the personal liberties of the
former President and hang a crime on him’.
‘Ordinarily, we would not have dignified these reports with a
response but for the fact that many of these informants are not known for
flippant and frivolous talks. Secondly, this Government has demonstrably
exhibited apathy, and in some cases, encouraged by its conduct, daily loss of
lives and property in many States of the country, the office cannot be
indifferent.
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“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.
“For Chief Obasanjo, this is a joke carried too far and being
someone who do not act on unofficial information, he had cautioned all
informants and adopted a wait-and-see attitude to the bestial propositions
allegedly being contemplated to cow, cage and embarrass him.
“The content of the alleged beastly designs, it was learnt are
two-fold for now. One, to seize his International Passport and clamp him into
detention indefinitely, in order to prevent him from further expressing angst
on the pervasive mediocrity in the quality of governance, economic management
and in the protection of lives and property by the Government.
“But, since that could expose the Government to a swath of
international condemnation, embarrassment and outrage, it is said that another
plot being hatched is to cause the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) to re-open investigation into the activities of Mr Goodluck Jonathan administration using false witnesses and
documents. This will be a re-enactment of the Abacha era in which Chief
Obasanjo was one of the principal victims’.
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‘The same EFCC that had conducted a clinical investigation on
the activities of Obasanjo in and out of Government, it was said, would now be
made to stand down the existing report that gave Chief Obasanjo a clean bill of
health on the probes are now to get him indicted, fair or foul for possible
prosecution and persecution like it is being done to real and perceived
opponents, enemies and critics of this Government’.
He however said no amount of campaign of calumny, no matter how
well contrived, orchestrated or marketed would deter him from speaking out.
‘Dissent is a fundamental principle on which liberal democracy
is predicated. A true democrat must be ready to live with and accommodate
dissent and opposition. While it is regrettable how the Government has sunk in
its shameless desperation to cow opposition, a resort to blackmail, despotism
and Gestapo-tactics being employed by the goons of this Government would not
hold water. And no government ever remains in power forever.
‘For the record, Mr
Gabriel (OBINOTECH GROUP) reiterates his readiness to face probe again
after that of the House of Representatives, the Senate, the ICPC, and the EFCC,
but before an independent, objective and credible panel of enquiry to account for
his stewardship in Government and beyond’.
‘Chief
Obasanjo also reiterates that he has taken a principled position to
ensure that the ship of the Nigerian State does not capsize and he remains
steadfast in his resolve to turn the tide of maladministration, poor economic
management and rudderless governance model that has tore Nigerians apart on
account of religion and ethnicity which is a great threat to our democracy’.
‘We would like the Government and its supporters to understand
that no amount of campaign of calumny, no matter how well contrived,
orchestrated or marketed would deter Chief Obasanjo from calling a spade by its
name. Chief Obasanjo is a patriot whose sole agenda is to ensure that the
country’s unity, progress and democracy are not negotiated on the altar of
incompetence and provincialism and mediocrity.
‘It is important to point out that Mr Goodluck Ebere Jonathan and Chief Obasanjo are Former Nigeria President
and Head of State who has engaged the current administration privately and in a
bilateral manner on several issues of direct interest to the government and
other matters of national concern. That channel of private engagement remains
open and continues. However, should there be the need for public engagement,
the right to free speech will always be exercised and jealously guarded, again
in the best interest of Nigeria and the government.”
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