Former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who is among those hoping to clinch the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has lamented that the Inspector General of Police, (IGP) Suleiman Abba, was endangering the nation’s democracy through his conduct.
Disclosing this in Calabar, the Cross River State capital on Friday, Atiku noted that by taking position on matters that were before the courts, the IGP was turning himself into a court of law, which he said was dangerous.
The ex-Vice President, who spoke to journalists after addressing delegates of the APC from Cross River State at the Transcorp Metropolitan Hotel, said: “The IGP is a qualified lawyer who ought to have known that it is not his responsibility to recognise the speaker.
“What he should provide is security for government institutions, but he is now taking side with the ruling government and that is most unfortunate and it portends a lot of danger for our democracy and I will address the issue formally on Saturday night.”
Reacting to a recent demand by Senator Kabiru Gaya for him and other presidential aspirants to step down for Kano State Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwakwaso, he stated that the senator who is aspiring to succeed Kwankwaso as governor only said that to get his support.
In his address to the delegates, Atiku described himself as the architect of the various plans for the development of the Niger Delta region, which he accused the succeeding administrations of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of bastardising.
His words, “It was my blueprint that contained the Amnesty Programme, it was my blueprint that contained the creation of the Ministry of Niger Delta, it was my blueprint that had the master plan for the development of Niger Delta, it was my blueprint that had the establishment of the coast guard. But when I lost the election, President Umaru Yar’Adua took it.
“He tried to implement it, he started with the Amnesty programme, but because he did not prepare the blueprint and did not know how it was prepared, he started implementing the programme in a wrong way and I was not even consulted. It took me three months of brainstorming with experts and consultants in Abuja so that we could arrive at a plan for the Niger Delta. The reason government policies on Niger Delta are not working today is because people who are implementing it are not the originators”, Atiku said.
The aspirant promised that if he becomes president, he would ensure proper implementation of the development plan for the Niger Delta and guarantee that the Ministry of Niger Delta is situated within the region.
He boasted that his contribution to human development and the economy surpassed that of the PDP government because he had been an employer of over 25000 Nigerians in the Niger Delta region alone.
The presidential hopeful declared that among those currently seeking to become president, he stands tall as having contributed the most in the sustenance of democracy in the country. He, however, argued that all the presidential aspirants on the platform of the APC were better presidential materials than President Goodluck Jonathan.
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