The arrest of Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume and his subsequent arraignment on a two count charge of breach of official trust and criminal conduct has been hailed as great feat by the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
Reverend Joseph Hayab, Special Adviser to Kaduna State’s Governor Patrick Yakowa on Religious Affairs (Christian Matters) told Sharpedgenews in Kaduna that they have been accusing government for not prosecuting anybody but expresses happiness that at least some arrests have been made and the spokesman of the group, Ali Sanda Umar Konduga, has pleaded guilty to terrorism charges, naming Senator Ndume as their sponsor.
Rev. Hayab said the arrest of Senator Ndume of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP from Borno South senatorial district “is the beginning of a good thing and security agents should go for more, take them to court, if they are not found guilty release them; and if they are found guilty because they truly participated in this criminal act and are being jailed and people see that justice is being done, I can assure you it won’t be long we will have no issue of Boko Haram again”.
According to him Boko Haram members “are not spirits but human beings who are being supported and sponsored by human beings like us”, adding “it’s only that people are refusing to sincerely come out to say this is the man, I know him”. But with the arrest of Ndume and co Hayab thinks it’s a signal that nobody is above the law.
“If anybody even in the executive or any higher officer in government is found to be supporting them, such a person should be brought to book. Even if such a person is a religious leader, he shouldn’t be spared. If we do that then we will bring sanity and people will no longer cause other fellow citizens pains and hardship because they are championing a cause that is only to their advantage and others don’t understand”.
Even though it took the security agents a long time to make the recent arrests, the Reverend gentleman said the important thing is that at last they have done something and he is hopeful that they will do more, saying it may be that the government doesn’t want to play to the gallery by arresting people indiscriminately but wants to be sure they have facts saying their pattern of leadership is beginning to yield fruits.
He urged people to understand Nigeria as a complex country that can push one to something that tomorrow you could be wrong. “When you come they will say you are slow, when you are fast they will say you don’t even think, but as long as there is result as we now have, what again will be the complaint? We pray more results will come”, Hayab said.
It will be recalled that Ndume was fingered alongside former Nigerian ambassador to Sao Tome and Priincepe, the late Sa’idu Pindar by Ali Konduga, the Boko Haram sect spokesperson also known as Usman Al-Zawahiri who was paraded by the State Security Service, SSS in Abuja. The arrest of Ndume, according to Sharpedgenews finding is a vindication of opposition politicians especially Janathan’s main rival in the April 2011, General Muhammadu Buhari, candidate of Congress for Political Change, CPC.