Man of the people: 3 unlikely groups who support GEJ’s State of Emergency

by Rachel Ogbu

Goodluck_Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has received support from unusual quarters – organisations who have in the past been severely critical of the president and they include the Yoruba pan socio-political organisation, Afenifere; the South-South governors and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria for the declaration of a state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states on Tuesday.

The Afenifere however, were not so much in support of a mixture of civilian and civil rules in the states.

Secretary General of the Afenifere, Seinde Arogbofa, concluded that “desperate desease needed desperate remedy.” “The Boko Haram insurgency has really tasked us in this country. Lives and property have been destroyed. We seemed to be under the threat of foreign invasion. I don’t know how the president will manage military and civil. It is a curious combination that is my reservation,” he said.

[READ: ‘Granting amnesty to Boko Haram could decrease the killings in the North’ – Afenifere ]

Cross River State Governor Liyel Imoke said governors from the South South also approved the state of emergency rule.

“The South-South Governors’ Forum endorses the state of emergency by Mr. President and we ask him to be firm on security. He is enjoying popular support of the security adviser and the National Security Council on the state of emergency,” he said.

“His actions are positive, the democratic institutions are still in place and I think is very significant and commendable. I think it’s for us now to throw our support behind the President, encourage him in dealing with this insurgency and ensure those states are returned to normalcy.”

According to reports, National President of PFN and President-General of Gospel Light International Ministries, Felix Omobude, in a statement on Wednesday, described the measure as long overdue but urged the Federal Government to go beyond declaration of emergency rule, by ensuring that all those involved in terrorists activities in the country were “promptly brought to justice, so as to reduce the pains being suffered by victims of the Boko Haram Islamic sect atrocities.”

 

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