Kuku: I’m Ready for Probe over Jonathan’s Second Term Comments

The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Mr. Kingsley Kuku, has expressed his readiness to honour any invitation by the police over his alleged inciting statement that the Niger Delta would know no peace if President Goodluck Jonathan did not get a second term in 2015.

Reacting to a motion on Tuesday by the House of Representatives that the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, should investigate him and a former Niger Delta warlord, Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, who also made inflammatory statement over Jonathan’s second time, Kuku said he had no reason to shun any invitation by the police if the need arose.

His assurances to honour any police invitation on the issue came as more criticisms trailed the utterances of the duo with a northern group, Arewa Citizens Action for Change warning both Kuku and Asari-Dokubo to watch their utterances, which it described as an act of “rascality.”

The presidential aide through the Head of Communications, PAP, Mr. Dan Alabrah, said in a telephone interview with THISDAY yesterday that as a law-abiding citizen and a former lawmaker himself, he would not hesitate to respond to any invitation by the police or any law enforcement agency.

According to him,  before the House reaction,  Kuku had already put in perspective, the context in which he spoke during his recent meeting with United States State Department officials and the United States Institute for Peace, among others .

He said as a former students’ union leader, and one of the major actors who brokered peace that culminated in the end of militancy in the Niger Delta through the amnesty programme, Kuku would be the last person to advocate violence.

Kuku and Asari-Dokubo’s comments also elicited more criticisms yesterday as the northern group  described their comments as an act of rascality.

The group in a statement by its General Secretary, Mr. Sani Darma, also called on Jonathan and the federal government to call both men to order, as they constitute “security risk.”

Darma said the statement of Kuku, a presidential aide, could be interpreted to be speaking on behalf of the president.

The group warned that if the duo were not called to order, it could encourage more inflammatory statements from other that could lead  to a state of anarchy, which could threaten the foundation of the nation.

It added that Kuku and Asari-Dokubo’s utterances had strengthened the suspicion that the current state of insecurity in the North was being engineered by the government, particularly the presidency.

JD:It appears there might be some element of remorse being shown by Kuku here as he implies his statement might have been taken out of context.Perhaps what he should do is to issue a very clear statement on what he said  and what message he really meant to convey.That would help!