Jonathan pays ex-militants N9 Billion and is funding militias to disrupt polls – APC alleges

The All Progressives Congress has accused the President Goodluck Jonathan’s government of sponsoring ethnic militias to foment trouble before, during and after the forthcoming general elections.

It contends that N9bn reportedly paid out to some ex-militants and ethnic militias recently is aimed at mobilising them to scuttle the polls.

This was contained in a statement in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

APC argued that the protests by members of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra last week, seeking the sacking of INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, was orchestrated by the federal administration as part of its continuing efforts to sabotage the elections.

It said the next group that had been mobilised to protest against Jega and the use of card reader was the Oodua Peoples Congress, which is also a beneficiary of the N9bn payout, “ostensibly for pipeline protection, but in reality to prepare the ethnic militias for their reprehensible role in scuttling the elections.”

APC alleged that more ethnic militias were to be enlisted by the Jonathan administration to continue the protest against Jega and the card reader, which it said was to give the impression that Nigerians want Jega sacked and were also against the use of card reader.

The party expressed sadness that a President, who inherited a united nation, had done everything he could to divide the country along ethnic and religious lines, including allegedly patronising ethnic militias, to champion sectional interests at the expense of national unity.

It wondered why Jonathan would pay N9bn to a handful of people at a time of great economic downturn and falling
Naira, as well as in a situation in which many states could not even afford to pay their workers because of dwindling allocations from the federation account.

”A profligate government that has been bribing people with dollars and ferrying huge funds around practically to buy votes has outdone itself by paying out all of N9bn to a few Nigerians, with less than three weeks to the elections.

“Shortly after the payment, some self-serving groups started organising protests that, for all intents and purposes, are being orchestrated to scuttle the polls. This is a shameful show by the Federal Government,” APC said.