Kano blast: Tinubu blasts FG, tells Jonathan to resign

From DESMOND MGBOH, Kano

Former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to resign from his office following his inability to address the security challenges in the country.

The leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria, (ACN) spoke to reporters at the Mallam Aminu Kano Airport, Kano yesterday, after a sympathy visit to the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, where he offered prayers for those killed during Monday's terrorist bomb attack in the state. Tinubu said: "I am worried of the sustenance of terrorism.

If it is happening in some of these states all these while and you have not gathered enough intelligence to nip it in the bud, you have failed. You should please resign as a government.

"You cannot continue to blame all the inspector generals of police or police officers alone. It is the responsibility of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to make sure that Nigerians live in harmony, not divided religiously, not divided by tribe and not in conflict among themselves."

Tinubu said Nigerians were already weary of the excuses of the present administration on the security challenges, even as he feared that some people in the system were benefiting from the security problems as it allowed them unhindered access to security votes.

The former governor expressed support for the granting of amnesty to the members of the Boko Haram following the insurgency, but insisted that members of the sect who had blood on their hands must face justice. He said making them to face justice would serve as a deterrent for the dastardly acts committed against the state. "For the innocent ones among them, there must be amnesty.

We cannot fight a war in our own country against minor crimes and minor people. We would only end up multiplying these people by trying to use force against our own citizens," he stated. Tinubu also stressed that contrary to the claims of the president, the members of the sect were no ghosts.

He noted: "They are no ghosts. Those people in prison, are they ghosts? If there are ghosts, then please show me their graves? If they are ghosts, then remove the JTF, because the JTF is not trained to fight ghosts?"

According to him, the Federal Government should also decentralize the police and create some sort of local police to attend to the local needs of the people as a step to further ease the security challenges even as he advanced that government should trim down the bureaucracy associated with the police s to save resources to improve the quantity and quality of the police in the country.

He also spoke about the duplication of the acronym of their proposed party and assured that the merger of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was on course despite the challenges offered by those who wanted to register a similar acronym for their own party.

He, however, said: "If you say you want to take away APC, there are 26 letters in the alphabet. So, the spirit and the commitment to the merger is a reality." He drew attention to the fact that by sequence of events, APC was already an intellectual property of those in the merger arrangement, adding that they had long notified the public and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the birth of APC as far back as February.

He pointedly told those who were masterminding the exploits of a new APC and their sponsors that, "you cannot commit abortion after the baby is already born. It is not possible. APC has come to stay."

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Original Page: http://sunnewsonline.com/new/cover/kano-blast-tinubu-blasts-fg-tells-jonathan-to-resign/