The governing People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Nigeria has said the islamist militant group, Boko Haram is a political machinery that the opposition wants to use to destablize the country.
Representatives of the two major political parties in Nigeria;PDP and All Progressive Congress(APC) were on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday morning to reveal the competence of various candidates they support to Ghanaians.
One of the major issues which featured on the show was the growing insecurity in Nigeria,heightened by Boko Haram.
While Tonywhite Meribe, General Secretary of the Goodluck Jonathan-led PDP Ghana Chapter insisted Boko Haram was not a genuine threat in Nigeria, his opponent, the Public Relations Officer for the APC, Ghana Chapter, Sampson Chuks was of a different opinion.
Meribe told Citi Breakfast Show host, Bernard Avle that the activities of the insurgent group have always “been overblown by the International media.”
According to him, the fact that “Northern governors have not come out to categorically condemn what is happening with the Chibok girls and what is happening with Boko Haram” is enough proof to support his claim.”
“How come these issues are happening in the North and the Northern fraternity of leaders cannot stand up and say we are against Boko Haram?” the General Secretary of PDP Ghana Chapter quizzed.
According to him, “it is on record now … that Boko Haram is being sponsored by the opposition to destabilize the country.”
“If Boko Haram is the way people make it to be, then Northern Nigeria would have been destabilized but we still have activities going on there”.”
But the Public Relations Officer for the APC , Ghana Chapter, Sampson Chuks in a sharp rebuttal, dismissed the allegations, and insisted that “anything called insurgent, North South East and West will vanish from Nigeria” in a hundred days under the government of the opposition leader.
Chucks also vehemently denied that Boko Haram wasn’t a genuine threat.
According to him, the governors have kept mute on the raging security situation because “they have their own issues with Goodluck Jonathan and the State.”
He also refuted allegations that the opposition was fueling the activities of Boko Haram to make the ruling government unpopular, stressing that the group started its work under former Nigeria President, the late Umaru Musa Y’Adua, who was a Muslim.
“Boko Haram has been there before Jonathan became president. If Y’Adua, a Muslim was in power and Boko Haram rises up against his government, it is not APC matter,” Chucks said.
–
By:Eugenia Tenkorang/citifmonline.com/Ghana