A
civil rights group, Centre for Rights and Grassroots Initiative, has
urged the Department of State Service and other security agencies to
summon the Lagos State Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate,
Mr. Jimi Agbaje, over a warning he gave last week.
Agbaje had warned that some elements in
the oil rich South-South region could ‘shut down the system’ should
President Goodluck Jonathan lose next month’s election, adding this made
it important for Jonathan to return.
However, the CRGI, in a statement by its
Executive Director, Mr. Nelson Ekujimi, said the statement was
sensitive and must be investigated.
The group said it had become imperative
to investigate the statement because President Goodluck Jonathan had
warned in his New Year Day speech that security agencies should arrest
troublemakers and “this provocative and inciting statement by Mr. Jimi
Agbaje presents a perfect opportunity to test the sincerity of Mr.
President and the professionalism of the security agencies.”
The statement added, “The security
agencies should immediately invite Mr. Jimi Agbaje for questioning to
give more light on his people who have the power to shut the system. The
security agencies must make their findings public in order to reassure
Nigerians whose sensibilities have been assaulted by Agbaje’s reckless
statement on national security.
“Also, the security agencies have a
constitutional responsibility to the people of Nigeria to be impartial
and professional in the discharge of their functions and it is hoped
that they will take this task as a national assignment.”
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress has also berated Agbaje for his comment
In a statement by the publicity
secretary of the Lagos State chapter of the party, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, the
party said “Lagosians will be making the greatest mistake in history if a
candidate that lacks training in simple economics and the monumental
power of a diversified economy is voted in error.”
The statement added, “The APC is at a
loss and completely dumbfounded that a candidate that says he wants to
govern a dynamic, powerful, prosperous, and enlightened state like Lagos
is resorting to this type of cheap and strange blackmail in the 21st
Century in order to win an election.
“Even in the Third World, there are many
countries that are surviving without oil. In 1997 Dell computers made
more money than Nigeria with just 12,000 workers. MEARSK Containers, a
shipping company; Apple, HP make more money than Nigeria and yet Agbaje,
a pharmacist, cannot think in the 21st Century.”
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