Deploy soldiers against B’Haram, not for elections – Buhari

THE presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to deploy more soldiers and other security operatives in the troubled North-East ravaged by Boko Haram insurgents rather than keep them for the 2015 general elections.

Buhari, who made this call during a meeting with stakeholders of Ogoni ethnic nationality in the Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State on Thursday, also said that, if voted into power, his administration would implement the report of the United Nations Environment Programme on the clean-up of Ogoniland.

He argued that the Boko Haram onslaught would have been a thing of the past if the Federal Government had moved the number of soldiers, police and operatives of the State Security Service deployed during elections to Borno and Yobe states as well as the other areas affected by insurgency.

He said, “I have made this comment before and the Federal Government refused to react to it; the number of soldiers, policemen and officers of the State Security Services they deploy during elections, if they had deployed them to Borno and Yobe states to fight Boko Haram, by now, Boko Haram would have been history.

“Boko Haram is not a religious group; Boko Haram is not an ethnic group. Boko Haram is a terrorist group. 

They attack people in schools, they attack people in Churches, they attack people in Mosques, they attack people in markets, and they shout Allahu Akbah! No religion rejoices over the blood of innocent people.”

The former Head of State promised that he would put an end to the pollution in Ogoniland if elected as the President of the country during the February 14 election.

Buhari reiterated his promise to fight terrorism, corruption and other forms of crimes, if elected President.

Earlier, the Director-General of the Buhari/Osinbajo Campaign Organisation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, had asked President Jonathan to explain to Nigerians and the world why he had refused to implement the UNEP report on the clean-up of Ogoniland.

Amaechi said the President’s hatred for the people of Ogoni could be responsible for his   inability to implement the UNEP report since the funds that would be used to clean up Ogoniland would come from Shell Petroleum Company.

“Let President Goodluck Jonathan tell us why he has not allowed the implementation of the UNEP report. He has no reason. The money to be spent in the implementation of the report is not his; the money belongs to Shell,” he said.(PUNCH)