The Atiku-Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call an emergency meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the threat posed by the formation of the ‘Jagaban Army’ to Nigeria’s sovereignty.
WITHIN NIGERIA recalls that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) youth wing formed the Jagaban Army to rally support for the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, ahead of the upcoming general election.
But in a statement on Sunday, the spokesperson of the PDP campaign, Kola Ologbondiyan, the main opposition party urged President Buhari to, “as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, protect the integrity of the Nigerian military as well as the sovereignty of our nation by summoning a meeting of the National Security Council over the establishment of a parallel army (Jagaban Army), by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
He stated that Nigerians are concerned that, despite the public outcry over the APC and its presidential candidate’s exposed plan to use a parallel army to undermine national security, insult the Nigeria Army, cause confusion, disrupt the 2023 elections, and derail our democratic process, neither the APC Campaign nor Tinubu has disowned the formation or its nefarious plans.
Ologbondiyan said:
This is even more worrisome in the face of allegations in the public space that the Jagaban Army is training and arming thugs with dangerous weapons in secret locations across the country, ostensibly to use the illegal formation to undermine Nigerian security forces and unleash mayhem on Nigerians during the elections.
Nigerians have been wondering how a political party or any candidate for that matter can create a parallel Army and adorned them with uniforms as well as ranks within a sovereign State as if Nigeria has become Asiwaju Tinubu’s fiefdom.
Furthermore, Nigerians are alarmed that the APC presidential candidate went to London to declare war on our nation by openly charging his party cohorts to take power at all costs, only for him to return to the country to have his campaign set up a parallel army to undermine our national security in order to achieve his malevolent designs.
The PDP stated that the “expectation of Nigerians was that after Asiwaju Tinubu declared that ‘political power is not served in a restaurant, it is not served a la carte, it is what we are doing; it is being determined; you do it at all cost; fight for it, grab it, snatch it and run (away) with it,’ the security authorities ought to have immediately taken him in for questioning for treasonable felony.”
While stating that this is not the first time Tinubu has come out brazenly to undermine Nigeria’s sovereignty as well as the office and person of Buhari, he added that Nigerians can recall how Asiwaju Tinubu went to the Presidential Villa to undermine President Buhari by using the presidential facility in the seat of power to announce his presidential interest.
He also stated that Nigerians are aware of how the APC presidential candidate has arrogantly continued to disrespect, disparage, and undermine the person of the President, as well as how he publicly mocked and depicted Buhari as weak and weeping over presidential election losses until, according to him, he (Tinubu) came to his rescue and made him (Buhari) President.
Ologbondiyan added that:
The import is that Asiwaju Tinubu, in his arrogance, believes that he cannot be subjected to President Buhari’s constitutional powers, and this accounts for his temerity to run a parallel Army, a treasonable act against the Office of the President and our national sovereignty.
He emphasized that Tinubu is clearly desperate to be President, but with clear signs of rejection by Nigerians, he is willing to cause bloodshed and destroy the democratic process.
He said;
The fear across our country is that the APC presidential candidate is apparently following this dangerous path.
We implore Asiwaju Tinubu to come to terms with the reality that Nigerians have made up their minds to elect the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as the next President of Nigeria, come February 25.
Our Campaign, therefore, demands that President Buhari should stamp his feet of authority and check Asiwaju Tinubu from sinking our nation into an abyss.