Minister of Police Affairs; Alhaji AbdulJelili Adesiyan, in Lagos on Monday, blew hot as he warned that henceforth Nigerians including politicians, no matter how highly placed, who make inciting statements or statements considered mutinous will be arrested and prosecuted.

This was as the minister asked former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to bury his thought about forming or heading an interim government by 2015, declaring that whoever called for revolution could be consumed by it.

Adesiyan said this at the presentation of a book, entitled: “Watch the Watcher,” written by the publicity secretary of pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Mr Yinka Odumakin.

Dignitaries at the event included Chief Ayo Adebanjo; former governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba; Mr Francis Ojo, who represented the Minister of Niger Delta, Mr Kingsley Kuku; Chairman, Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Mr Jide Adeniyi, Colonel Bello Fadile, Tony Nyiam, Ondo State Commissioner of Environment, Mr Sola Ebiseeni, Mr Odia Ofeimun, among others.

Adesiyan, who noted he was minister today by the grace of God, said: “Well, I said it and I will continue to say, I am warning, anybody who makes inflammatory statement or says anything that is mutinous will be arrested and prosecuted.

“They should stop the drum of war. Anybody that calls for revolution will be consumed by that revolution; Nigeria belongs to all of us.”

The minister, while responding to a question, declared that nobody in the country was untouchable, daring whoever thinks he is above the law to try it.

“There is nobody that is untouchable. Anybody who does it, no matter how highly placed, will be arrested and prosecuted. Nigerians would have seen what they are saying; they are trying to make a lot of propaganda to cow the government.

“They have been in government before, they’ve done it before, they’ve seized power in an unholy manner, they’ve been ‘coupé’ out by their own coup and they have done what they wanted to do,” he said.

Adesiyan, who frowned on the statement credited to one of the leaders of the opposition, charging his supporters to go to polling centres in 2015 with charms, cutlasses, guns, among others, queried which type of leader would do that.

According to him, the implication of such call was that such a leader would not mind making people’s wives widows and their children fatherless, warning that the Federal Government would no longer condone such inciting statements.

“Whoever says it would pay for it. I am saying it, they would pay for it. This country is established by law and the law must take its course,” he further warned.

“Power belongs to the people, it belongs to God and He gives to whom He pleases. Goodluck Jonathan never dreamt 10 years ago that he would become president of this country. Today, by the grace of God, he has been planted, water or not, he would germinate. That is why they have to keep shut and watch what they are going to say,” the minister added.

Speaking further, Alhaji Adesiyan, while lauding the author for a job well done and for not caring whose ox was gored, debunked insinuation that Odumakin was paid to do the job.

“Somebody said he was being sponsored. He has no relationship with any government in power in this country. He is a man known to be apolitical and he always comes up with constructive arguments and criticisms.

“If Obasanjo can corner him, he will beg to do unholy things, but he knows that Odumakin will not do that. For anybody to say that, it’s a fallacy,” he said.

Speaking further, the minister said the book had “really chronicled the type of leader called Obasanjo. He is a man that talks between his teeth. In this country, he believes he is the best. He is, to himself, the only saint we have in this country, when even Jesus never called himself a saint.

“Obasanjo always opens his mouth and says all sorts of things and like I said, so many people are cleverer than him and those are the people who want to use him to capture power, but I know that the masses of this country would not allow such a thing.”

Speaking on alleged planned interim government, the minister said Obasanjo started dreaming about it because he was outsmarted by the national leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, who he disclosed produced Professor Yemi Osinbajo as General Mohammadu Buhari’s running mate.

According to Adesiyan, the choice of Obasanjo for the position was former governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

“Tinubu is cleverer than him (Obasanjo). People from Osun are very clever. He is my brother,” he said, adding that Obasanjo was now rooting for an interim government because his candidate, Oyinlola, lost to Tinubu’s choice, Osinbajo,” he added.

Speaking at the event, former governor of Ogun State, Chief Osoba, while putting the record straight, declared that many aspects of the book written by the former president needed correction.

For instance, Osoba said contrary to claims by Obasanjo that he knew nothing about the agreement with the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Obasanjo was at the centre of all the negotiations to broker a political agreement between AD and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2003.

“For him to say he knew nothing about it, I totally disagree with him, because the final meeting with him was attended by highly placed Nigerians, a highly placed royal father, the Awujale, Pa Adesanya, Bishop Gbonigi, Bishop Ladigbolu, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, all the governors and a host of others.

“For him to say that he knew nothing about the arrangement between AD and PDP, which he aborted by rigging the election is totally incorrect,” he said.

“Sometimes in 2002, at the University of Lagos convocation, Obasanjo asked me and other AD governors who were at the convocation to meet him at the Dodan Barracks in Ikoyi.

“At Dodan Barracks, he begged us to support him in 2003 to retain his seat as president in the 2003 election. We told him that it was not a decision we could take without the involvement of elders of the party such as the late Pa Abraham Adesanya.

 “Another meeting was fixed for Ogun Government Lodge in Abeokuta. At the meeting, Obasanjo again begged for our support. However, two weeks before the 2003 presidential election, Pa Abraham Adesanya accused Obasanjo of trying to use military tactics to outwit us. He failed to keep to the terms of the agreement we had with him.

“It is a surprise that Obasanjo, in his book, denied knowing anything about the arrangement between the AD and his party, PDP. I will give a full account of what happened in my book,” Osoba, a veteran journalist, said.

Making his own contribution, Chief Adebanjo lamented that in spite of the several foibles of Chief Obasanjo, some Nigerians still saw him as a credible person and a pathfinder, including some people who called themselves progressives.

Adebanjo, who recalled that Obasanjo wasted the slot of Yoruba race for eight years, challenged him to point to any positive way he had affected the race while he was in office.

The Afenifere chieftain asserted that Obasanjo could not explain the source of the extreme wealth, as he was nearly declared bankrupt before he became president in 1999.

He also took a swipe at him for always having the knack to pass derogatory remarks on past leaders of the country, including the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who the former Biafran leader, Chief Odimegwu Ojukwu, described as the best president Nigeria never had.

Adebanjo, while recalling the remark made by former Defence Minister, General T.Y. Danjuma, that Obasanjo would go back to jail if the financial books of NNPC were to be opened and also the judgments of Obasanjo’s wife and children on him, urged Nigerians to pray to be saved from the hands of those who had ruined the country but parading themselves as its rescuers.

In his own comment, Colonel Bello Fadile pointedly described Obasanjo as a liar, saying that he was well informed that he would lead an interim government that would be put in place after General Sani Abacha must have been removed from office.

He said time had come for those Obasanjo had lied against to take him to court, predicting that the former president was bound to return to jail.

The book reviewer, Professor G. G. Darah, described the book as provocative and a polemical book of memories and reflections about General Obasanjo, saying that the author was motivated to write it to challenge the exaggerated claims of heroic grandeur and accomplishments made by the former president.

He expressed the belief that the book would add to the collective memory card of Nigerians, so that they do not suffer the “disease of amnesia.”

DSS gives serving governor, politicians last warning
The Department of State Services (DSS) on Monday, for the last time warned politicians “seeking to truncate the nation’s democracy by their careless and obviously mischievous utterances and actions.”

The warning was given in a statement signed by the Deputy Director of Public Relations of the DSS, Marilyn Ogar, in Abuja.

The DSS made particular reference to the statement of a serving governor calling on men of the armed forces to rise up in protest against constituted authority, with the intent to undermine the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

It will be recalled that the Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, had last week faulted the failure of the government to adequately equip the Armed Forces in the fight against Boko Haram.

The DSS stated that the actions of the concerned people are aimed at achieving their desires.

It described the statement as irresponsible, selfish and against the collective well-being of Nigeria.

“The attention of the Department of State Services has been drawn to inciting and unguarded statements and utterances by some politicians ahead the 2015 general election.

“Of particular interest is the statement of a serving governor calling on men of the armed forces to rise up in protest against constituted authority, with the intent to undermine the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Their actions, which are intended to achieve their desires, are irresponsible, selfish and against our collective well-being as a nation.

“It is noteworthy that similar unguarded provocative statements by politicians in the past had encouraged violence that resulted in loss of innocent lives and property.

“It is pertinent to note that no Nigerian is above the laws of the land. Political office holders must not hide under the privileges of their offices to perpetrate and encourage the commission of acts inimical to the general interest of this nation, as this will henceforth not be tolerated.

“This statement, therefore, serves as the last warning to all those seeking to truncate the nation’s democracy by their careless and obviously mischievous utterances and actions. They are to desist and retrace their steps immediately,” the statement read.