CALL FOR JONATHAN’S REMOVAL: SSS quizzes Tunde Bakare •We can’t be intimidated -Reps
VICE-presidential candidate of the Congress For Progressive Change (CPC) in
last year's presidential election and founder of the Latter Rain Assembly,
Pastor Tunde Bakare, was on Monday quizzed by operatives of the State Security
Service (SSS) in Lagos.
A reliable security source told Nigerian Tribune on Monday that the pastor turned politician was sighted at the Shangisha Lagos office of the SSS where he was undergoing intensive interrogation.
The source revealed that Pastor Bakare was questioned on his church sermon last Sunday during which he reportedly said that President Goodluk Jonathan would be removed from office before 2015 and that there would be a fresh election.
According to our source,''Pastor Bakare is with the state security. His invitation was not unconnected with his Sunday inciting preaching.
“It was inciting. He will explain further under which basis a fresh election will hold before 2015. If it is God that revealed that to him, he will tell the security, the law will take its due course this time around. This is not a Banana Republic where anything goes,” Nigerian Tribune source declared.
Though the spokesperson for the SSS, Marylyn Ogar, a Deputy Director, could not be immediately reached for comments as she was said to be attending an important meeting as at press time, a very senior officer confirmed the story but declined further comments.
But Bakare’s media aide, Comrade Yinka Odumakin, confirmed it, saying: “He has finished with the security operatives and he is out of the place.”
Also, the chairman of the Campaign for Democracy, Dr Joe Okei Odumakin, confirmed the invitation of the convener of the SNG by the security operatives.
Her words: “I spoke with the Pastor some minutes ago. He is out of the place. He told me that he was invited for a chat by the security operatives. He got there around 3.10 p.m. and left around 4.20 p.m.
On whether the invitation was in connection with his Sunday message, entitled: “How to Change Government Peacefully and Make Society Free,” the human rights activist said the cleric was taken on several issues.
However, as of the time of filing this report, the cleric has not made public his meeting with the security operatives.
Last Sunday, Pastor Bakare, in his message, predicted that the next election would be free, fair and credible and even better than what we experienced during the 1993 general election. Also, he advised President Goodluck Jonathan to toe the path of honour by throwing in the towel rather than becoming a victim of impeachment by the National Assembly.
Warning President Jonathan against being impeached by two-thirds of members of the National Assembly, Bakare disclosed that the process had just begun with the poor implementation of the 2012 budget alleged by the minority leader of the House of Representatives, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila.
The cleric said the president should not wait for the conclusion in the court of law and the court of public opinion for the rape and atrocities committed against the Appropriation Act 2011 in respect of the subsidy scandal and the admission of extra budgetary spending.
Meanwhile, the chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Honourable Zakari Mohammed, on Monday, said that no amount of blackmail would make the House backpedal on its impeachment plans against President Jonathan over alleged poor implementation of the 2012 budget.
The House spokesman, who issued a press statement in Abuja said that the step taken by the House was patriotic and was not in anyway playing to the gallery.
He noted that, "to assume that we are guided by some forces outside the House of Representatives is mischievous and a deliberate ploy to misrepresent the House before the Nigerian public."
According to him, "to now conclude that our resolution of Thursday (July 19) is borne out of selfish motives is terribly out of place, We would, however, continue to raise our voices to the highest point. Where we sight injustice or impunity. No amount of blackmail or intimidation will cow us to abdicate our constitutional responsibility which we signed with our employers, (the Nigerian people) to stand firm and protect their interest.”
He stressed further that "this is arising from the July 19, 2012 plenary which discussed extensively on the snail speed implementation of the 2012 Appropriation Act by Mr President and the attendant ultimatum issued, that if by September 30, 2012 when the House resumes from recess, there is no marked improvement, the House would be left with no choice than to initiate impeachment proceedings.”
“This bold and patriotic step by the seventh Assembly has attracted different comments from a lot of quarters, expectedly, therefore, some sponsored news editorial and commentaries chose to deliberately misinform the public on the rationale behind our nationalistic stand.
“For the avoidance of doubt, whilst we are aware that all revenue generating agencies have surpassed their annual target by mid this year, the House is worried that this positive development did not reflect the implementation of the budget for the benefit of the Nigerian peoples.
“This trend, if not arrested, would worsen the already fragile state of the nation, hence the need for our quick intervention. To then insinuate that the House of Representatives took this noble step to satisfy pressure from a political party or because constituency projects were not awarded to members or because of the drama that followed the presentation of the fuel subsidy report, is to say the least malicious, damaging and uncharitable to the image of the assembly.
“We in the legislature are lawmakers and not contractors and constituency projects execution has been the exclusive preserves of the executive and its agencies. At no time has there been any argument on this. Similarly, what members do in the course of budget preparation is to furnish the respective MDAs with locations and area of needs of our constituencies.
“The bidding processes are handled by the supervising ministries. The entire 360 members in the House are bound by the Nigerian project. Our independence and objectiveness is evident in the selection of our principal officers, which we did according to our thoughts.
“The seventh assembly has distanced itself from the Honourable Farouk Lawan
case as evident in the bold steps we took in suspending him as chairman of the
committees on fuel subsidy and education, in addition to encouraging the law
enforcement agencies to do their work according to the dictates of the law,” the
statement said.
A reliable security source told Nigerian Tribune on Monday that the pastor turned politician was sighted at the Shangisha Lagos office of the SSS where he was undergoing intensive interrogation.
The source revealed that Pastor Bakare was questioned on his church sermon last Sunday during which he reportedly said that President Goodluk Jonathan would be removed from office before 2015 and that there would be a fresh election.
According to our source,''Pastor Bakare is with the state security. His invitation was not unconnected with his Sunday inciting preaching.
“It was inciting. He will explain further under which basis a fresh election will hold before 2015. If it is God that revealed that to him, he will tell the security, the law will take its due course this time around. This is not a Banana Republic where anything goes,” Nigerian Tribune source declared.
Though the spokesperson for the SSS, Marylyn Ogar, a Deputy Director, could not be immediately reached for comments as she was said to be attending an important meeting as at press time, a very senior officer confirmed the story but declined further comments.
But Bakare’s media aide, Comrade Yinka Odumakin, confirmed it, saying: “He has finished with the security operatives and he is out of the place.”
Also, the chairman of the Campaign for Democracy, Dr Joe Okei Odumakin, confirmed the invitation of the convener of the SNG by the security operatives.
Her words: “I spoke with the Pastor some minutes ago. He is out of the place. He told me that he was invited for a chat by the security operatives. He got there around 3.10 p.m. and left around 4.20 p.m.
On whether the invitation was in connection with his Sunday message, entitled: “How to Change Government Peacefully and Make Society Free,” the human rights activist said the cleric was taken on several issues.
However, as of the time of filing this report, the cleric has not made public his meeting with the security operatives.
Last Sunday, Pastor Bakare, in his message, predicted that the next election would be free, fair and credible and even better than what we experienced during the 1993 general election. Also, he advised President Goodluck Jonathan to toe the path of honour by throwing in the towel rather than becoming a victim of impeachment by the National Assembly.
Warning President Jonathan against being impeached by two-thirds of members of the National Assembly, Bakare disclosed that the process had just begun with the poor implementation of the 2012 budget alleged by the minority leader of the House of Representatives, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila.
The cleric said the president should not wait for the conclusion in the court of law and the court of public opinion for the rape and atrocities committed against the Appropriation Act 2011 in respect of the subsidy scandal and the admission of extra budgetary spending.
Meanwhile, the chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Honourable Zakari Mohammed, on Monday, said that no amount of blackmail would make the House backpedal on its impeachment plans against President Jonathan over alleged poor implementation of the 2012 budget.
The House spokesman, who issued a press statement in Abuja said that the step taken by the House was patriotic and was not in anyway playing to the gallery.
He noted that, "to assume that we are guided by some forces outside the House of Representatives is mischievous and a deliberate ploy to misrepresent the House before the Nigerian public."
According to him, "to now conclude that our resolution of Thursday (July 19) is borne out of selfish motives is terribly out of place, We would, however, continue to raise our voices to the highest point. Where we sight injustice or impunity. No amount of blackmail or intimidation will cow us to abdicate our constitutional responsibility which we signed with our employers, (the Nigerian people) to stand firm and protect their interest.”
He stressed further that "this is arising from the July 19, 2012 plenary which discussed extensively on the snail speed implementation of the 2012 Appropriation Act by Mr President and the attendant ultimatum issued, that if by September 30, 2012 when the House resumes from recess, there is no marked improvement, the House would be left with no choice than to initiate impeachment proceedings.”
“This bold and patriotic step by the seventh Assembly has attracted different comments from a lot of quarters, expectedly, therefore, some sponsored news editorial and commentaries chose to deliberately misinform the public on the rationale behind our nationalistic stand.
“For the avoidance of doubt, whilst we are aware that all revenue generating agencies have surpassed their annual target by mid this year, the House is worried that this positive development did not reflect the implementation of the budget for the benefit of the Nigerian peoples.
“This trend, if not arrested, would worsen the already fragile state of the nation, hence the need for our quick intervention. To then insinuate that the House of Representatives took this noble step to satisfy pressure from a political party or because constituency projects were not awarded to members or because of the drama that followed the presentation of the fuel subsidy report, is to say the least malicious, damaging and uncharitable to the image of the assembly.
“We in the legislature are lawmakers and not contractors and constituency projects execution has been the exclusive preserves of the executive and its agencies. At no time has there been any argument on this. Similarly, what members do in the course of budget preparation is to furnish the respective MDAs with locations and area of needs of our constituencies.
“The bidding processes are handled by the supervising ministries. The entire 360 members in the House are bound by the Nigerian project. Our independence and objectiveness is evident in the selection of our principal officers, which we did according to our thoughts.
