Groups Condemn Allegations Linking Jonathan With Avengers

From Chris EZE, Yenagoa

The National Executive Council of Ogbia Brotherhood has strongly condemned what it described as “dangerous trend of production of spurious and wild allegations against former president Goodluck Jonathan”.
Ogbia Brotherhood is a socio cultural group in Bayelsa made up of the people of Ogbia Kingdom, in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa.
The group which addressed a press conference in Yenagoa warned those accusing the former president of being sponsor of the destructive Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) to desist from such accusations.
“It is unthinkable that the former president by any iota of imagination could be linked with sponsoring or establishing an armed outfit like the NDAs to antagonize the Federal Government.
“The allegation is false, baseless, mischievous and wicked; it should therefore be thrown to the dust bin of history by all right thinking Nigerians”.
The National chairman of the group, Chief Benson Agadaga, who spoke at the forum, said the allegation lacked substance and did not bear true reflection or semblance of the nature, original beliefs and intent of Jonathan.
The chairman described Jonathan as a true son of Ogbia, and an embodiment of peace and stability, from his pedigree, antecedents and actions.
“The Ogbia people for instance are not historically known for fanning the embers of war or reckless shedding of blood for any reason.
“We urge the law enforcement agencies to unravel the masquerades behind those perpetuating economic sabotage and the dastardly act of maligning the personality of former president Jonathan in order to allow peace reign in Nigeria,” Agadaga said.
In a related development, an advocacy group, Coalition of Niger Deltans for Justice and Development, has described as “callous, wicked, malicious and unthinkable” the campaign linking former President Goodluck Jonathan with the Niger Delta Avengers.
According to the group which described Jonathan as a good, innocent, peace loving, law abiding and God-fearing man, claimed that the campaign was withh an intention to harm the former president.
In a statement issued by the president of CONDJUD, Mr. Ebiakpo Barle he noted that the plot to bring Jonathan to disrepute, imprison him with the ultimate aim to perhaps, eventually kill him in detention being contrived by the blackmailers was selfish, personal and wicked.
Barle said, “Laughable as the allegations against him (Jonathan) in the campaign of calumny already in the open are, it cannot be taken for granted and waved aside as it is serious because they are desperate and anxious to accomplish their clandestine mission to malign, frame up and eliminate an innocent man.
“The plot is to link and to establish him as the chief sponsor of the activities of a militant group in the Niger Delta, the Niger Delta Avengers. The ex-President, we all know, is a meek and honest man, who upholds more than anything else, the unity of Nigeria and progress of her people for greater development.
“Therefore, any kind of thinking to link him with any set of persons or cabal planning or carrying out bloody mission of bombing and destroying economic means of the country or destabilizing the nation, cannot and does not tally with his character.”
He said Jonathan had long ago demonstrated he is a non-violent person and does not play politics with the development of the country when he vowed that “no blood of any Nigerian is worth my ambition and I do not play politics with the development and wellbeing of our people.”
Barle said Jonathan, in upholding that principle, voluntarily relinquished power to his successor, President Muhammadu Buhari, without allowing his followers to foment any kind of trouble or violence during and after the 2015 Presidential election.
He added, “That Jonathan is sponsor of the NDA is laughable and a fabricated lie from the pit of hell and the handiwork of mischief makers and persons who are indeed enemies of Nigeria and want this country to capitulate under the watch of Buhari.
Barle alleged that some of the mischief makers were politicians within the fold of the All Progressives Congress seeking Buhari’s favour.
He also fingered some traditional neighbors and sworn ethnic enemies of Ijaw people in the Niger Delta and their few feudal Northern allies as the engineers of the wild allegations against Jonathan.
Barle also alleged that some heads of security agencies as well as overzealous anti-graft agencies, anxious to impress Buhari to justify the hundreds of millions of naira voted for them, were also suspects in the unfounded allegation.


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