Obasanjo Loyalists Fault Jonathan On Odi… Say His Assertions Are “Factually Incorrect”

The alleged frosty relationship between Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan took a turn for the worse yesterday, as a group loyal to the Ota farmer has debunked the statement credited to President Jonathan during his presidential media chat, Sunday, on the invasion of Odi Community by the former President, saying that the he did not get the facts right.

The group, led by former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, in a statement on Monday said that some cabinet members in the Obasanjo administration met last night to review the president’s statement and as well cross-checked the facts of Odi invasion with former President Obasanjo and the former Director General of the State Security Services (SSS) during the Obasanjo era, Col. Kayode Are, and that he had come to the conclusion that Jonathan’s statement was fraught with “factually incorrect” assertions.

Fani-Kayode stated that when five policemen and four soldiers were murdered by militants in Bayelsa State, the then President asked former governor Dieprieye Alamieyesigha to fish out the culprits and hand them over but that the governor said he could not do so.

A move which neccessitated an order from Obasanjo, as the Commander-in-Chief to troops to invade Odi community which was believed to harbour the perpetrators, in order to destroy the operational base of the militants and put a stop to killing of the nation’s security forces with impunity.

The statement read in part: “Five policemen and four soldiers were killed by a group of Niger Delta militants when they tried to enter the town of Odi in Bayelsa state in order to effect their arrest. This happened in 1999. After the brutal killing of these security personnel President Olusegun Obasanjo asked the then Governor of Bayelsa state, Governor Alamiyeseigha, to identify, locate, apprehend and hand over the perpetrators of that crime.

“The Governor said that he was unable to do so and President Obasanjo, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, took the position that security personnel could not be killed with impunity under his watch without a strong and appropriate response from the Federal Government. Consequently he sent the military in to uproot and kill the terrorists and to destroy their operational base which was the town of Odi.

“The operation was carried out with military precision and efficiency and it’s objectives were fully achieved. The terrorists were either killed and those that were not killed fled their operational base in Odi, were uprooted, were weakened, were demoralized and were completely dispersed. That was the purpose of the whole exercise and that purpose was 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. I advise those that doubt this to go and check the records.

“The same thing was done in Zaki Biam in Benue state in the north-central zone of Nigeria 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. The objectives of the military operations in both Odi and Zaki Biam were to stop such killings, to eliminate and deal a fatal blow to those that perpetuated them and to discourage those that may seek to carry out such barborous butchery and mindless violence in the future. Those were the objectives and nothing more and clearly those objectives were achieved.

“There is no doubt that after Odi there was still unrest, agitations, protests, kidnappings and the blowing up and sabotage of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta area but there were hardly any more attacks on or killing of soldiers and security personnel by the terrorists and militants because they knew that to do that would attract a swift and forceful reaction and terrible retribution from the Nigerian military.

“To stop and deter those attacks and killings was the objective of President Obasanjo and that objective was achieved. President Goodluck Jonathan was therefore in error when he said that Odi did not solve the problem of killings in the Niger Delta area by the Niger Delta militants. Not only did it stop the killings but it is also an eloquent testimony of how to deal with terrorists, how to handle those that kill our security personnel with impunity and how to deter militants from killing members of our civilian population and thinking that they can get away with it.

“If President Obasanjo had not taken that strong action at that time many more of our civilian population and security personnel would have been killed by the Niger Delta militants between 1999 and 2007. By doing what he did at Odi and Zaki Biam President Obasanjo saved the lives of many and put a stop to the killings and terrorism that had taken root in the Niger Delta area previous to that time.

“On the issue of Boko Haram it is unfortunate that President Obasanjo’s comments have been misconstrued and his views misrepresented. He never said that the Odi treatment should be applied to Boko Haram or that such action is appropriate in these circumstances. What he said was that a solution ought to have been found or some sort of action ought to have been taken sooner rather than allow the problem to fester over time like a bad wound and get worse. There can be no doubt that he was right on this because, according to President Jonathan’s own Chief of Army Staff, no less that 3000 people have been killed by Boko Haram in the last 2 years alone.

“That figure represents approximately the same number of people that were killed by the IRA in Northern Ireland and the British mainland in the one hundred years that the war between them and British lasted and before peace was achieved between the two sides. The same number of casualties that the IRA inflicted on the people of the United Kingdom in one hundred years is the same number of casualties that Boko Haram have managed to inflict on our people in just two.

“This is unacceptable and it is very disturbing. The Federal Government must cultivate the courage and the political will to stop the killings by Boko Haram and to find a permanent solution to the problem. When President Obasanjo was in power he handled such matters decisively, with vigour and with the utmost urgency. He brought justice to the perpetrators quickly and promptly and he did whatever he had to do to protect the lives and property of the Nigerian people. The truth is that the strategy that he adopted to fight terrorism and mass murder worked very well and it was very effective. For President Goodluck Jonathan to suggest otherwise is regrettable.”