ABUJA-Secretary of Northern Leaders and Stakeholders
Assembly, Dr. Umar Ardo, has tasked United States President, Donald Trump to
ask President Muhammadu Buhari while he jailed an American citizen for 95 years
in 1984 while he was Nigerian military Head of State.
President Buhari attends Lunch in
honor of select African Heads of State hosted by President of United States
Donald Trump at the sidelines of 72nd Session of the United Nations General
Assembly in New York on 20th Sept 2017
Ardo, a former ally of ex-Vice
President, Atiku Abubakar alleged that the Buhari-led military regime jailed
Mahmet Ben Chembi without any evidence against her, in 1984.
He alleged that President Buhari was
not knew to taking extra judicial means of dealing with perceived enemies even
when there were no evidence against them.
Ardo told journalists on Sunday that
he was not surprised that the President was reluctant in obeying court orders
even as he questioned President Buhari’s democratic credentials.
According to
him, the American lady merely came to do legitimate business in Nigeria when he
was arrested by the then regime of Buhari. He said: “There was this case of the
wealthy American lady, Mahmet Ben Chembi, who brought in her $17 million from
the US to invest in plumbing in the building of Abuja, but was framed of
defrauding the Nigerian State and taken to Buhari’s Military Tribunal and
jailed for 95 years without a shred of evidence adduced against her by the
government.
“On top of it, she was fined N500 million. It was the regime of
another military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida that set up a Judicial Review
Panel that reviewed the case and released her from jail.
“President Donald
Trump should ask his guest, President Muhammadu Buhari while he did that to his
(Trump ) citizen. “There was also the case of a wealthy Nigerian woman resident
in Saudi Arabia who returned to the country and was arrested on arrival at Kano
airport, taken to tribunal and jailed 10 years for being in possession of N600.
She had a 5-year old daughter who was sent to jail along with her. ” He
regretted that Buhari’s antecedents did not portray him as a leader that could
be trusted with another four years in office. Because of this, he said the
country must look for a new leader in 2019 who he said would show love to
Nigerians regardless of their ethnicity and political affiliations.
He also
said it would be wrong to assume that the Buhari regime is corruption -free,
saying the truth about its activities would be unveiled after leaving office.
He continued: “Having known all these about Buhari, and many, many more of
such, I came to the inevitable conclusion that a person like that cannot make a
good leader. “It is natural therefore for reasonable people to oppose such a
leadership and look out for an alternative. This is exactly what is going on in
Nigeria today.
“In fact, such frivolous and unfounded accusations inundating
Buhari’s past leadership has brought to serious question the current
accusations against members of the past regime.
“No one should blame me if I
question the truthfulness of the current exercise. After all, it is only after
leaving office that the truth of one’s tenure is revealed. “For as far as I am
concerned, the current so-called looters’ list is nothing more than names of
the likes of Ben Chembi. If the man can do it then, why can’t he do it now? “I
know those former leaders have their blames, but the Buhari leadership has the most
blame.”
Ardo said that it would be better for President Buhari to listen to
former leaders who he said had advised him against running for a second term.
“I believe those who advised him not to run are being kind to him and are
lovers of this country because they know he has lost the support of majority of
Nigerians and if he re-contests and wants to use incumbency to force himself
back to office, he will only plunge the country into unfathomable crises that
will not be in the interest of anyone,” he added.
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