Boko Haram Is Arm Wing Of APC, Says Fani-Kayode

Controversial former aide to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, Femi Fani-Kayode, has accused the All Progressives Congress, APC, of running Boko Haram terrorist group as its arm wing. The former Minister of Aviation made this accusation on Monday, speaking as a guest on Channels TV’s breakfast programme, ‘Sunrise Daily’.

Fani-Kayode, who recently returned to the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, from APC, alleged that leaders of the opposition party are in support of the insurgents, who have carried out several deadly attacks in northern part of Nigeria. He said the reason APC supports terrorism is to discredit the PDP led administration.

According to the lawyer turned politician, “if you compare what’s happening in Nigeria to what happened in Ireland some years ago, you had Sinn Fein on the one hand and then you had the IRA on the other. The IRA was the armed wing of Sinn Fein and as far as I’m concerned, Boko Haram could well be described as the armed wing of the opposition, today.

“It’s very clear to me when you look at all these things that Nigeria is a nation that is at war and we need to be able to do something about this and recognize that when we are at war, you don’t start fighting the government of the day.”

He added that some members of APC have sympathies for the Islamic sect, stating that they (APC members) had threatened violence if the Presidency did not return to the North in 2015. “That was in 2011, three years later, we’ve seen evidence of that,” he said.

“We’ve seen that unfolding in this country”, he said, alleging that threats of making Nigeria ungovernable by some APC elements make them obvious sympathisers.

“Look at the comments of somebody like General Buhari, who was once Head of State in this country.

“Just last year, he said that Boko Haram should be granted amnesty, that Boko Haram should be treated with kid gloves, that Boko Haram should be treated in the same way as the Niger Delta militants (that is to say they should be sent abroad, paid a monthly salary and so forth and that they should not be killed,” stated Fani-Kayode.