New Telegraph

Insecurity: Don’t use Mailafia as scape goat – Shehu Sani

A former Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Shehu Sani, has asked the Federal Government and state governors not to use Dr. Obadiah Mailafia as a scape goat to cover their inability to finding lasting solutions to the increasing violence and insurgency in the northern part of the country.
Mailafia, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was on Wednesday grilled by the Department of State Services (DSS) in Jos, Plateau State, for some allegations he had made during a radio programme at Nigeria Info 99.3FM, bordering on the insecurity bedevilling the country.
Mailafia was interviewed on Monday during one of the station’s programmes ‘Morning Cross Fire’, where he had amongst other things said, “repentant Boko Haram members had revealed to him a serving Northern governor was commander of the terrorist group.”
But addressing newsmen after receiving the award ‘Africa’s Legend of Human Rights,’ by the Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) on Thursday in Abuja, Sani lambasted the DSS and state governors who were already riding on the issue to make some inciting comments, to pay attention to the crisis on their hands.
He noted that rather than oppress people for expressing their opinions on a matter, the security agencies, federal and state governments should consider partnering with custodians of sensitive information helpful in addressing and bringing an end to the insurgency, violence and killings in the country.
In his words: “This is a democracy, people in the position of power must learn to respect the fundamental rights of citizens as guaranteed by the constitution of this country.
“We shouldn’t use Mailafia as a scape goat or an excuse. Mailafia is not responsible for the insurgency and the violence, he is only expressing his opinion and that should be respected.
“I have seen the governors making statements over Mailafia’s position, they should concentrate their efforts, energy and focus in finding a solution to the violence in their own domain rather than finding a scape goat in Mailafia.
“You must be tolerant; if we continue to oppress, arrest, detain people simply because they express their opinion, people in power should know that one day they are going to be out of power. The very chain they use in pinning people down from expressing their opinion will also be used against them.”

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