ThisDay bomb blast: El-Rufai, Daniel react

Posted by admin Latest Politics Friday, April 27th, 2012

Among the early callers at the ThisDay bomb blast scene yesterday were former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai and immediate past governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel.

Speaking with Daily Sun, El-Rufai said the situation was very sad that Nigerian lives continued to be lost to the incapacity of the government to check the menace of insecurity, saying, “what can I say except to pray for the souls of the departed? May their souls rest in peace.”

El-Rufai further put the blame on the doorstep of the government, saying the primary objective of having a government was security. “The blame has to fall squarely on the Federal Government, which controls all levels of security apparatus in the country. And what is more distressing for me is to learn that ThisDay got a telephone threat in January from people claiming to be Boko Haram, that they were going to bomb ThisDay and they reported this to the authorities.

“And look at what has happened. Someone drove into the building and exploded a vehicle, killing so many people and then, they will say we are on top of the situation, we will do this, we will do that. People are tired of hearing all these bla, bla every time there is bomb blast. And you can’t drive your car freely. You meet checkpoints everywhere, inconveniencing people while the real culprits are moving round with ease,” El-Rufai bemoaned.

While adding that “we have a government that cannot do anything right,” El-Rufai further said the situation was hopeless. “We have a government that cannot do anything right. What can we do? I think the only thing we can do is to pray to God to give us a solution because this government is not giving us any.

“The situation is hopeless. It has been for quite a while and anytime they come out and promise something, you know, this Boko Haram showed that they are in a greater control of the situation than the government. I don’t understand this at all,” El-Rufai said.

Similarly, Daniel said the whole thing did not make sense any longer, the attack on a media house. “I am just joining my voice, appealing to our people and whoever may be festering this, to please stop it for the sake of our children, for the sake of our future and for the sake of this country. Our country used to be crisis-free in terms of terrorism like this and we must not be known for bad things like this in the eyes of the world.”

-Sunwp_posts