By Jimitota Onoyume
PORT HARCOURT—  PEOPLES Progressive Party, PPP, has called on northern elders to be mindful of their utterances,  so as not to incite any section of the country against the other. National leader of the party, Mr Solomon Edebiri, who spoke in Port Harcourt, yesterday, said he was deeply worried with the newspaper reports credited to the Northern elders, which called for the resignation of President Goodluck Jonathan on account of the recent Abuja bomb blasts.

Noting that no single individual or group has the capacity to force a constitutional President out of office, he advised the Northern elders to take steps to promote national unity. “They should not attempt to break up  this country.

The Northern elders should know that they don’t own this country more than any other section of the country. No individual can force Jonathan to resign. We have a constitution in this country that regulates the conduct of governance,” he said.

Edebiri who expressed his condolence to families,  who lost their lives in the Abuja bomb blasts, appealed to members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, not to politicise the sad incident, which resulted in their deaths. “We lost over ten persons in that sad incident. I think members of the PDP should not politicise the sad situation.

My heart goes out to the families, who lost their loved ones  in the bomb blast.”
Edebiri also enjoined those behind the bomb blast to have a rethink, saying that spilling innocent blood was not a better way to go about any crusade.  He said, if they truly have any genuine issue against the system, they should seek the path of dialogue rather than spilling innocent blood.

“Those behind the blast have certainly showed that they are enemies of our great country.  I wonder if those  behind the killing of innocent Nigerians have anything to gain from their act,” he said.

I cried, I wept that day as I was watching clips of the scene of innocent Nigerians  that sustained various degrees of injuries at the sight of the bomb blast. “

The PPP national leader further called on the federal government to place a blanket  ban on  past and present presidents of the country from next year’s presidential election as a way to reduce political tension in the political space.

According to him, the problem in the political space at the moment is traced to the presidential aspiration of these former and present presidents of the country. To save the nation from this tension he said President Jonathan should act now by placing a  ban on himself and all former presidents of the country from contesting the presidential election.