Gov Nyako Is Irresponsible....FG

THE Federal Government, on Wednesday, cautioned against utterances capable of dampening the morale of troops fighting insurgents in the North-East, as it described the memorandum sent to the the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) by Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State as inciting and irresponsible.

Nyako had, in the memorandum slated for consideration by the NSGF today (Thursday), accused President Goodluck Jonathan of orchestrating genocide in the war on terror using the military.

But addressing State House correspondents after the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, said the statements were capable of dividing the country.

“Each time the security people strike at targets, there is a lot of public uproar and propaganda, weakening our national resolve to fight terror. This nation deserves security at this time, even in the heat of it, you hear some irresponsible comment coming from highly placed people, including a governor.

“It’s regrettable when those statements come from people we believe should be leading the course of unity, appreciating the great job the security personnel are doing. If only Nigerians understand that as we sit in this hall, our security people are out there in the bush, sleeping there day and night and getting killed in the course of maintaining the security of this country.

“But what we see is that people who have little knowledge on how security services are rendered will just open their mouths and make statements that create panic in the country and this is very unfortunate.

“To hear the kind of things being said by the governor of Adamawa State at this period is very unfortunate.

Nyako is a former Chief of Naval Staff, someone that has worn uniform before. To publicly incite the people against the security forces of this country is the height of irresponsibility.”

Maku, who expressed confidence that the nation would defeat terror, remarked that terrorism was a war of criminals against the entire nation “and they know that this crisis originated at local levels.”

The minister called for vigilance on the part of every citizen and noted that the North in particular was endangered unless the people acted to check terrorism.

Maku also expressed government’s distress over the abduction of secondary schoolgirls by suspected Boko Haram insurgents, which he described as a national tragedy.

While praying that no harm would befall the students, he assured that security forces were unrelenting in their efforts to locate and bring them back to freedom.