A civil society group, Congress for Rights Of Yoruba Nationalities (CROYN), has berated former President Olusegun Obasanjo over his comments on the Court of Appeal judgments in Zamfara, Kano and Plateau states, describing them as “inciting.”
The court had invalidated the electoral victories of the governors of the three states. But CROYN said Obasanjo’s comments were “incitement to violence, affront on the judiciary, utterly irresponsible, insubordination and unbecoming of an elder statesman.”
The group, in a statement by its National President, Abiodun Fanoro, urged the Federal Government to call the former president to order, claiming that his comments were capable of setting the country on fire, just as it directed security operatives to live up to their duties by inviting Obasanjo for questioning and holding him accountable if violence breaks out in any of the three states.
CROYN also called on eminent and peace loving Nigerian leaders as well as the Association of Former West African Leaders headed by former President Goodluck Jonathan to call Obasanjo to order before it is too late.
The group urged the former president to “emulate former Nigerian leaders like Abdulsalam Abubakar, Yakubu Gowon and Jonathan, who have deployed their experience, wealth and unique privilege of being former leaders to building peace and unity in the country and not as divisive tools or agents of controversies.”
According to the group, “Obasanjo has been untruthful about his claim of non-partisanship, which he claimed when he publicly destroyed his People’s Democratic Party (PDP) membership card. Rather, he has amplified his partisanship since the run-up to the 2023 presidential election and has sustained it till this moment because his candidate did not win and would not stop at anything to demobilise the winner, including incitement to violence.”
The statement queried Obasanjo’s moral and legal credentials to review judgments of courts with constitutional and competent jurisdictions.
In its view, what Obasanjo was championing was anarchy in a situation where participants in elections with genuine grievances were not allowed the benefit of the court to ventilate their cases.
It noted that the former president was vigorously advancing his well publicised, ageless hatred for Tinubu in the guise of playing opposition politics, and counselled that opposition should be played with decency, constructively and with the fear of God.
