North plotting to truncate Jonathan’s administration, group alleges

By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief

The violence in parts of the North is one of the strategies to truncate the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, a group, Southern Mandate, has alleged, but warned that it would spell doom for the nation.

This comes as a top commander of the Boko Haram was reportedly captured in the House of a serving senator in Maiduguri, last Friday.

In a communiqué issued in Abuja, yesterday, after a  meeting of its members, the group said  the Boko Haram insurgency was being used by desperate politicians to create an impression that Jonathan is incompetent of ruling the nation.

According to the communiqué, signed by representatives of the three southern geo-political zones, the  alleged move to use the House of Representatives to impeach the president on claims of poor budget performance was  another leg to the grand plot against the president.

“It is common knowledge that the Boko Haram insurgency was masterminded by these enemies of progress and national stability to create a scenario of insecurity and portray President Jonathan as incompetent to govern the country. When the strategy was deflated and cracks emerged in their fold, a new Boko Haram with a wholly political agenda was born to wrest power from the South through any means and at any cost,”the group said.

“When there was insecurity in the Niger Delta region, no one called for impeachment of the president in power even as the agitations were genuine, unlike the case of Boko Haram which we consider as a secret violent political party with highly placed and influential individuals in the country as members, fighting at all cost to unseat a democratically elected president. That is just a single leg of the battle against Jonathan”.

The group also condemned former governor of Yobe State, Sen. Bukar Abba Ibrahim, over his comments that the president  must allocate more resources to the North East or a greater violence would erupt in the zone, describing it as “treasonable felony”.12