Don’t intimidate opponents with soldiers, Kukah warns FG

Don’t intimidate opponents with soldiers, Kukah warns FG

The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Bishop Matthew Kukah, has expressed concern
over the use of military in elections, saying soldiers should not be used to
intimidate political opponents, electorate and the opposition.
Although he said did not see anything wrong in the use of soldiers, he, however,
warmed that the Federal Government should be careful with their involvement in
the forthcoming general election scheduled for March 28.
The January 29 judgment of Justice R.M. Aikawa of the Federal High Court,
Sokoto and the February 16 judgment of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal,
had outlawed the President’s deployment of members of the Armed Forces for
election purposes.
The All Progressive Congress had subsequently written a letter to the Presidency,
the Independent National Electoral Commission, National Security Adviser, Service
Chiefs and Peoples Democratic Party urging them to obey the court order.
Kukah spoke with journalists on Friday evening in Abuja, after delivering a lecture
entitled: “Democracy in Nigeria, So near, So far”, organised by the Catholic Caritas
Foundation of Nigeria, an organ of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria.
He said, “About the deployment of the military, frankly, I am not competent to
make this comment, but I think we also need to be very fair. I remember very well
that the election in Edo State, even Governor Adams Oshiomhole himself
commended our soldiers. For the election in Ekiti State, we are hearing different
stories now. But I don’t think that my friend, Kayode (Fayemi) and others carried
placards against the presence of the military.
“The military in my understanding are not there to conduct the election; they will
be involve at different levels. What is more important is that how do you ensure
that the Army does not become a platform for intimidation? It is like a knife, you
can use it to peel your yam or kill.”
On the 2005 report released by the United States, Bishop Kukah urged people to
desist from misleading Nigerians that the U.S.A had predicted that Nigeria was
going to break up by 2015.
He said America released the report to predict what might likely happen on the
African continent.
Kukah insisted that Nigeria would not “have been where we are now,” if the
country’s leadership had lived up to their responsibility, by using the report to put
the country in order.