The Federal Government Has Replaced The Search For Justice With Intimidation And Brutality –Tunde Bakare.
The General Overseer, Citadel Global Community Church (formerly called The Latter Rain Assembly), Lagos, Pastor Tunde Bakare, yesterday, condemned the recent clampdown on the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, and Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, (a.k.a Sunday Igboho), saying the federal government has replaced the search for justice with intimidation and brutality.
Bakare, who was the running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari when the President contested election on the platform of the former Congress for Progressive Change in 2011, said this during a sermon in his church in Ikeja, Lagos State.
The cleric, who said his recent pronouncements had been making some people uncomfortable, dared a particular official of the regime of Buhari to come after him if the government was offended by those comments.
“I dare you to come after me since that is the usual style now. You might have done it to others; you are about to learn a lesson if you touch me,” said the cleric, who did not name the government official. If you know what I have done in secret, bring it to the open. I dare you to come after me if you can. I worked with you; I worked for you; I supported you to get there (where you are). When I talk now, I now have a smelly mouth. I am not interested in meeting you any longer; no more visits. Now, it is war, because Nigeria must be set free,” Bakare said.
The cleric, who went down memory lane to narrate how he supported the top official to get his current position in the President Buhari administration, said the official could move against him if he so wished.
He asked the official if had forgotten what transpired between them when only himself and the official were alone in a room after the official had vowed never to contest the post he had contested and lost out on three occasions.
“Have you forgotten that you vowed never to contest again? I said ‘not so’. I showed you how you can win the next election and you agreed to run and you won. I was not considering myself but concerned about how Nigeria can become great.
“Winning an election is a different thing; doing the right thing is another. No one must behave as if Nigeria is personal property. Nigeria must be set free and any obstruction along the way must be removed; it must get out of the way.
“I declare to you ‘Nigeria-for-Nigeria Movement’. I’m prepared to lead this movement. Nigeria is not a one-man property. This movement will liberate Nigeria,” he said.
Bakare also decried the energy being expended on clamping down on sectional agitators in the country, noting that although he did not support anyone or groups taking up arms against the state.
“I don’t support any act of violence, taking up arms against the country and killing people. Those are in the realm of criminality and anybody doing that must be brought to book. However, we must realise that what has given rise to the agitation is a lack of justice and equity. When there is justice, when there is equity, agitation will die down.
How can you be expending so much energy on Igboho and Kanu? Igboho and Kanu are not Nigeria’s problems. Nigeria must restructure and no one can stop that,” he declared.
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