Boko Haram: Ekweremadu under fire over anti-Buhari comment

Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu
 

The senator representing Lagos West Senatorial District, Solomon Adeola, said on Friday in Abuja that the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, was wrong in his comparison of the activities of Boko Haram insurgency during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration and the bomb blasts recently recorded in some parts of the country.

Adeola, in a statement by his Media Adviser, Chief Kayode Odunaro, said Ekweremadu should not play partisan politics with the resurgence of Boko Haram attacks in recent times.

The senate deputy president had, on Thursday, expressed concern over the current spate of Boko Haram attacks in the country at a time that government should be talking of a plan to rebuild the North-East since Jonathan’s administration had almost rolled back the insurgency before handing over on May 29.

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But Adeola described Ekweremadu’s comparison as a partisan mindset of one playing politics with the insurgency.

But the Special Adviser to the Deputy Senate President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Uche Anichukwu, said Ekweremadu did not blame President Muhammadu Buhari, for the current Boko Haram attacks, when he spoke with journalists on Wednesday night.

Anichukwu, in a statement issued in Abuja, explained that his principal only reviewed the recent bomb blasts in some parts of the country and urged Nigerians to pray for, and rally round the Federal Government to win the war against insurgency.

He said, “Specifically, the Deputy President of the Senate was reported by two national dailies as stating that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has worsened insurgency, whereas Senator Ekweremadu expressed concerns over the resurgence of Boko Haram attacks in some parts of the country. At no time did he try to blame it on the present administration.

“It is instead, on record, that he not only commended the efforts of the present administration, especially in building international support and synergy to tackle the monstrous group, but he also called for greater inter-party, intergovernmental, and international collaboration to address the problem.

“The fact that out of the 75-man Senate Press Corps, representing various media houses, which were present at the function, only one medium sensationally skewed his statement out of context, while a second medium copied the same story without a by-line (name of reporter), tells the whole story of a devious intent.”

Anichukwu said Ekweremadu, as a lawmaker, would not shy away from presenting constructive criticism where and when appropriate.