The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has accused the Presidency of scaring Nigerians with the rhetoric of subversion.
Reacting to the alarm raised over the alleged attempt to overthrow President Muhammadu Buhari, the Director, Publicity and Advocacy of the Forum, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, asked the current administration to deal with the problems facing the country.
The NEF, on Tuesday, told Daily Trust that there was no point telling Nigerians that some unnamed citizens were plotting a forceful and undemocratic change of leadership in the country if the Presidency could not use the mechanism available to it to deal with the situation.
He challenged the Presidency to mention the plotters it claimed were recruiting some leaders of ethnic groups and the alleged ethnic groups.
Baba-Ahmed said: “Subversion is a crime, sedition is a crime and treason is a crime. Why is the Presidency or DSS telling us that there are people who are involved in these activities? What do they want the public to do with the information? They are failing twice; first of all, they are failing to eliminate the ground which gives these kinds of elements if they do exist, the reason to do what they are doing and then they are failing in enforcing the law.
“I can say we talk with other groups, we discuss national issues. That is our right; there is nothing illegal in that and I am sure other groups do the same thing. But when you throw this kind of blanket accusations that somebody that you haven’t told us, someone, that you are in opposition today with, you haven’t dealt with is engaging and recruiting sociocultural groups, you have to wonder are you just using words to scare citizens?”
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