BY DAYO ADESULU
The embattled former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr Obadiah Mailafia has accused the world powers of inciting violence and killings in Nigeria by empowering certain tribe with sophisticated weapons with the aim to disintegrate Nigeria as a country.
Mailafia who spoke on Channels Television on Wednesday decried the worsening security situation in Nigeria.
He said: “World powers want to destroy Nigeria and what they have done is to come and meet some people and tell them, ‘You are born to rule’.
”There is an agenda Obasanjo called Fulanisation and enforcement of one particular religion against the rest.
“The world powers encourage them and tell them, ‘We are behind you, go ahead.
”They provide the weapons and some local people buy into that idea and they begin a campaign of genocide because if you carry a heavy weapon and go into the forests, go into the ancient Savannah, you kill people, you rape women, what are you? You are committing genocide against the unarmed and defenceless.”
According to him, the security situation in the nation during the era of the late military head of state, Sani Abacha, was better than the insecurity confronting Nigerians in the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Reacting to the recent assassination attempt on Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, by gunmen, Mailafia said the Buhari government is the worst government Nigeria had since 1960.
”The Middle Belt condemn the assault and are not afraid of those who carried out the assault,” he said.
Mailafia said, “This attempt on the life of an executive governor and incumbent of a state is an attempted attack on the entire people of the state. Those who are trying to do this wicked thing need to understand the implication of what they are trying to do.
“If the governor of a state cannot feel safe to go to his farm, how will the ordinary Benue people feel going to their farms? This is a very bad precedence.
”The circumstances in Borno are very different. Borno is a war zone, we’ve been living with these evil people for a while but what happened in Benue is totally different and diabolical. We don’t know what they are trying to do but this could affect the whole country.
“Benue people and the people of the Middle Belt will never ever accept this attempt on one of their sons. Nobody is afraid of these people but it is just that these people are given arms and allowed to move freely while the machetes that ordinary people have are dispossessing from them, they are not even allowed to defend their homes and their families but we are glad that God saved the life of his Excellency, Governor Ortom.
”Furthermore, the Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress in the last election said some world powers are bent on destroying Nigeria by inciting one part of the country against the other.
“This is totally unprecedented. This is the worst time ever in the history of Nigeria. You can’t even compare with Abacha’s time; Abacha’s time was a golden era compare with what is happening. Do you think Abacha would have tolerated all these? You can’t travel on these roads, killings everywhere, destructions everywhere.”
”Nigerians have a right to defend themselves under the present security situation. He also warned security agencies not to hunt Yoruba rights activist, Sunday Adeyemo, well known as Sunday Igboho.
“Let me make this point clear. Under our constitution, under our laws and by the precepts of international laws, global ethics, natural justice and equity, the people who are about to die have the right to defend themselves.
”Therefore, the security agencies will be wise not to go after Igboho. They should leave that man alone; he is a hero of his people.”
