Former Vice President of Nigeria and aspirant for the 2015 presidential election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Abubakar Atiku, has explained that the people of Adamawa were frustrated by the Federal Government in the fight against Boko Haram insurgency and that was the reason they decided to confront the sect members without government’s help.
Vigilantes and local hunters had taken on the sect on Thursday killing scores of the sect’s members and injuring many. Aside from taking back the seized Mubi towns, the hunters and vigilantes got back five armoured personnel carriers belonging to the Federal troops but which had earlier been seized from soldiers by the sect.
Atiku who paid a visit to the Lagos State House of Assembly late Friday, said the loss of confidence in the Nigerian security was responsible for the decision by the local indigenes to battle the Boko Haram in Adamawa where he hails from.
Atiku spoke with journalists after convincing the members of the Assembly on why he should be taken seriously in the forth coming elections.
“I think about a week or two ago, I addressed a world press conference drawing the attention of the Federal Government to the fact that they have consistently lost ground on the Boko Haram issue and that they have been able to recover not even an inch of the lost territory since the crisis started,” Atiku said.
“The Boko Haram crisis is now more than five years. I think the government has not done well as far as I am concerned. But as far as Adamawa State is concerned, we have started fighting back, we have recovered two local governments from them through our local vigilantes and hunters.
“The sect is not an invincible group, but unfortunately, the Armed Forces has failed to curtail it. So we have to defend ourselves.”
He also expressed lack of confidence in the capability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct free and fair elections in the country judging by the way the distribution of the Permanent Voters Cards was recently bungled by the commission.
According to him, even though INEC is called the Independent National Electoral Commission, it is not independent in the true sense because all its staff are appointed by the Federal Government.
He suggested that an independent body should be set up to be saddled with the responsibility of appointing people for various positions in the commission.
“Obviously I will not rate INEC positively because I have always believed the INEC is not an independent body. Everybody in INEC, from top to bottom, is appointed by the ruling party,” he said.
“So how can it be independent? I think for us to have an independent INEC, we must also have an independent body to appoint officials.
“Today, INEC cannot be independent and my brother, Asiwaju (Bola Tinubu) has described it as having merged with the PDP. So I don’t believe the PVC exercise is being conducted efficiently and in an independent manner because there are so many lapses that have trailed the issuance of the PVC.”
He stressed that he would effect the change needed by the country and preached by his party if he eventually becomes the president of the country.
He also described as propaganda the claims in some advertisements and campaigns carried on various media by loyalists of President Goodluck Jonathan that the latter has achieved more than previous governments.
Atiku said he was not opposed to a consensus candidate but that he was happy with the way his party left the decision for consensus in the hands of the aspirants adding that his party acted responsibly in that instance.
“Consensus should be based on the willingness of all the parties that are involved. You cannot force consensus on the throat of people who are not willing,” he said.
“Again, it depends on how the party handles the issue. For now, I think it has handled it in a very responsible and mature manner. It has asked that aspirants explore the option of consensus. If they find that it is something that is workable, fine. If not, then they are subjected to primaries.”
