Obasanjo's Letter: State Your Side of The Story, Ojudu Urges Jonathan

The allegation by former President Olusegun Obasanjo that the Jonathan presidency has 1, 000 people on political watch-list and also training assassins is not one that any well-meaning or peace-loving president can muddle up with personality attacks.

A member of the Senate Committee on Defence and Army, Senator Babafemi Ojudu who represents Ekiti Central, made this statement in Abuja. 

Ojudu said rather than disparage the person of Obasanjo, the Jonathan presidency should explain its side of the story to Nigerians, unless it was busy strategising on the most suitable lie to sweep the allegation under the carpet.

He argued that: "No matter the name they call Obasanjo at this time, all that is irrelevant. What matters and should be of serious concern to all Nigerians is the yet-to-be-denied allegation that a sitting Nigerian president is arming and training snipers, ready to pounce at any time on any of the 1, 000 on the Jonathan's alleged watch-list."

Ojudu said of more concern is the logical assumption that vibrant leaders and members of the opposition must be those who populate the list, adding that security agencies have an uncompromising task at this time to protect these assumed endangered species from such killer squad, if it really exists.

He added that the letter from Obasanjo to President Jonathan has shown Nigerians where to look should any opposition leader get assassinated.

"How can grave and fear-evoking allegations as these be levelled against a sitting president and all his spokesperson could muster is that Obasanjo is self-serving. Honestly, this claim by Reuben Abati that the president will respond at the appropriate time sends a wrong signal. It gives one the feeling that they are rather looking for the appropriate lie. If Mr. President has nothing to hide, he should be able to explain with facts to Nigerians his own side of the story. These are not the kind of allegations that one sleeps over. And to think he got the letter since December 2?," Ojudu queried.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had alleged in a letter to President Jonathan that "Allegation of keeping over 1,000 people on political watch list rather than criminal or security watch list and training snipers and other armed personnel secretly and clandestinely acquiring weapons to match for political purposes like Abacha, and training them where Abacha trained his own killers, if it is true, cannot augur well for the initiator, the government and the people of Nigeria. Here again, there is the lesson of history to learn from for anybody who cares to learn from history. Mr. President would always remember that he was elected to maintain security for all Nigerians and protect them. And no one should prepare to kill or maim Nigerians for personal or political ambition or interest of anyone. The Yoruba adage says, “The man with whose head the coconut is broken may not live to savour the taste of the succulent fruit.”