Former Head of State, Gen.Muhammadu Buhari
Some South-South ex-militant generals
and commanders in Edo State on Wednesday announced their support for the
presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the February
14 presidential poll, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari ( retd.).
They also commended the leadership of
the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta for endorsing Buhari,
insisting that the group’s (MEND’s) action should be treated with
seriousness.
The ex-militants told journalists in
Benin, the Edo State capital, that their position was in line with the
expectations and hope of Nigerians for positive change and development,
particularly, the development of the Niger Delta region.
The spokesperson for the group, Mr.
Godwin Ogidigba, explained that the ex-agitators had implicit confidence
in the ability of Buhari, whom he said, was capable of addressing the
major challenges affecting various communities in the region, which were
yet to be addressed by the present administration.
He said, “In recent publications in the
dailies, you see MEND endorsing Buhari. People thought it was a joke. It
is not. The fact remains that we need somebody that can address the
salient issues that affect the Niger Delta region.
“Our brother has failed in those issues;
our brother has failed to take us away from poverty, our brother has
failed to bring development to the Niger Delta region.
“Just take a look at most of the Niger
Delta communities. They still remain where they are, in spite of the
fact that we have one of our own at the top, at the helm of affairs,
nothing positive has changed in the region.”
Ogidigba argued that their choice of
Buhari had nothing to do with religion or ethnicity but centred on their
desire for unity in the country.
He noted that although the amnesty
programme had brought some relief to youths in the region, some of the
terms of the agreement had yet to be implemented.
Ogidigba said, “Somebody who can stand
and develop our region, that should be our interest and that is our
interest. It is true that President Goodluck Jonathan is from the
South-South region; he is our brother. But the problem is this: he came
to meet the amnesty programme and since then he has not been able to
improve on it, which means that the amnesty programme stopped when the
late (President) Musa Yar’Adua died.”
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