Fani-Kayode faults Jonathan on Odi killings

November 20, 2012 by Ade Adesomoju  

 

Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode
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Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has disputed the claim by President Goodluck Jonathan in his Sunday’s presidential chat that the military operation in Odi, Bayelsa State in 1999 failed to stop the killings of security agents in the Niger Delta.

Fani-Kayode said in a statement on Monday that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who ordered the military operation, and Colonel Kayode Are, the then Director-General of the State Security Services, briefed him on the facts of the Odi case after the presidential chat on Sunday.

“I had  the privilege of being briefed about all the facts by President Olusegun Obasanjo himself and Colonel Kayode Are, the former D-G of the SSS, immediately after the presidential media chat, and I believe that it is appropriate to share some of those facts with members of the Nigerian public, given the grave assertion and serious charge that President Jonathan has made,” he said.

Fani-Kayode said contrary to Jonathan’s claim, the military operation ordered by Obasanjo stopped the killing of security agents by a group of Niger Delta militants.

He said the operation was necessitated by the killing of five policemen and four soldiers by the group and the failure of the then Governor of Bayelsa State,  Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, to fish out the killers.

The former minister said, “The operation was carried out with military precision and efficiency and its objectives were fully achieved.

“The truth is that the killing of security agents and soldiers with impunity by the Niger Delta militants virtually stopped after the operation in Odi and remained at a bare minimum right up until the time that President Obasanjo left power  eight years later in 2007.”

He said Obasanjo repeated similar feat in Zaki Biam in Benue State in 2001 after 19 soldiers “were murdered in cold blood and then brutally beheaded by some terrorists from that area”.

“Again, after the Federal Government’s strong military response in Zaki Biam, the killing of security personnel with impunity stopped,” he said.

Defending Obasanjo’s handling of insecurity during his administration, Fani-Kayode urged the Federal Government to “cultivate the courage and the political will to stop the killings by Boko Haram and to find a permanent solution to the problem”.

SOURCE: The Punch - Nigeria's Most Widely Read Newspaper 20 November 2012.