From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Presidency has accused the Co-convener of the #BringBackOurGirls Group, Oby Ezekwesili, of pettiness by criticising the efforts of the military and President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to stop the violent activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, made the allegation in a statement while reacting to Ezekwesili’s tweets where she condemned the military’s operation Python Dance II in Abia State.
The former World Bank executive had, through her tweeter handle @obyezeks, wondered why Nigerian security forces chose to use live bullets when the option of pepper spray was available.
She noted that the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force still have a lot to learn when it comes to handling protesters.
She tweeted: @PoliceNG & @HQNigerianArmy when you have to contain demonstrators to avoid breakdown of Order, REPLACE bullets with pepper spray. It works.
“Peaceful demonstrators, whose cause may even be provocative, can be dispersed without loss of one life. Learn this @PoliceNG @HQNigerianArmy
“The way DC Police engaged anti-Trump demonstrators yesterday, there is a lesson for our @PoliceNG & @HQNigerianArmy.”
Garba advised Ezekwesili to demonstrate a great sense of responsibility in the face of national security challenges posed by the IPOB incendiary propaganda designed to cause civil unrest in the country.
He said: “A prominent influencer, like Dr. Oby, has a moral and patriotic duty not to give ammunition to any violent group that seems determined to pursue its separatist agitation through reckless and destructive methods.
“While it is convenient for the civil society activist to condemn the military and the government of President Buhari, Mrs Ekekwesili didn’t find it appropriate, even once, to criticise the dangerous and violent propaganda being propagated by the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu. Oby, as they call her, tweets on everything. Why was she silent on this one?”
The presidency warned that the politicisation of the ongoing military exercise in the subregion, in line with similar exercises in the five other geopolitical regions, was inimical to the military readiness of the armed forces and the much-desired improved civilian-military relations in the country.
He challenged Ezekwesili to explain to Nigerians where the constitution of the country and international human rights law support the killing and molestation of innocent people in the name of advocacy for self determination.