By Ekunkonye Junior, Abuja
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Darlington Nwauju has labelled the two protests organised in February alone, as an attempt to sabotage President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election.
This was contained in a press statement he made available to media houses on Monday.
Hear him: “The timing of the protests in the face of two court cases currently lying before two justices of the Federal High Court, Abuja, demanding judicial probe into the Minister’s WAEC and NYSC records, simply proves that those who went to court did not even have confidence in the very process they initiated. If they have sufficient evidence which they have the opportunity to provide before the courts, why resort to street protests? Why trying to play on the emotions and intelligence of Nigerians?
“Resorting to street protests is an attempt to blur the sense of judgement of the unsuspecting public, bully the judges and continue the political blackmail against Nigeria’s best performing Minister.”
He continued: “Empirically, given the evidential transformation that has taken place at the Ministry of Interior since August 21 2023 that Dr Tunji-Ojo took office and the concomitant impact his innovative leadership has brought on both the paramilitary agencies like the Immigration, Correctional Services Civil defence & Fire service and the respect the numerous reforms have brought to us as a nation amongst the committee of nations.
“No patriotic Nigerian would clamour for the removal of such a high performing official of government, if not with an ulterior motif of reversing the huge gains government has achieved in less than three years through that Ministry and derailing the renewed hope agenda of Mr President, thereby making his reelection difficult come 2027.
“It is concerning that some individuals in this country are lending their time and resources to an agenda very difficult to sail through. As a Nigerian in my late forties, I am aware of the chequered history of the Interior Ministry, therefore, it is madness for any individual or group to convince me against appreciating the mileage covered in under three years especially because I am not suffering any form of amnesia.”
He concluded: “All the records of that Ministry under Dr Tunji-Ojo are open for public scrutiny; the both over-sighting committees at the National Assembly have kept applauding the excellent achievements including the fact that the Ministry exceeded FG’s revenue projections in the past two fiscal years.
“There has been a paradigm visible in the passport application/renewal process in this country, the Correctional Services in more than a decade is receiving better attention, national fire service station is being remodelled and modernized, civil defence is taken up more responsibility in our internal security architecture, more than 75202 staff of all paramilitary agencies under the Interior Ministry have gained promotion in the past two years.”
