The Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organisation has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to, as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, protect the integrity of the Nigerian military as well as the sovereignty of the nation by summoning a meeting of the National Security Council over the establishment of a parallel Army (Jagaban Army) by the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Spokesperson of Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organisation, Kola Ologbondiyan in a statement on Sunday said that Nigerians are concerned that since the public outcry over the exposed design by the APC and its Presidential Candidate to use a parallel Army, code-named the Jagaban Army, to undermine national security, affront the Nigeria Army, cause confusion, disrupt the 2023 elections and derail the democratic process, neither the APC Campaign or Asiwaju Tinubu have disowned the formation or its nefarious plans.
“The expectation of Nigerians was that after Asiwaju Tinubu declared that “political power is not served in a restaurant, it is not served a la carte. It is what we are doing; It is being determined; you do it at all cost; fight for it, grab it, snatch it and run (away) with it”, the security authorities ought to have immediately taken him in for questioning for treasonable felony”.
It reported that it is even more worrisome in the face of undenied allegations in the public space that the Jagaban Army is training and arming thugs with dangerous weapons in secret locations across the country ostensibly to use the illegal formation to undermine Nigerian security forces and unleash mayhem on Nigerians during the elections.
The statement said that Nigerians have been wondering how a political party or any candidate for that matter can create a parallel Army and adorned them with uniforms as well as ranks within a sovereign State as if Nigeria has become Asiwaju Tinubu’s fiefdom.
He said that Nigerians are alarmed that the APC Presidential Candidate went to London to declare war on the nation by openly charging his party cohorts to take power at all costs, only for him to return to the country to have his campaign set up a parallel Army to undermine our national security in order to achieve his malevolent designs.
It added that this is not the first time that Asiwaju Tinubu has come out brazenly to undermine the sovereignty of the nation as well as the office and the person of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Nigerians can recall how Asiwaju Tinubu went to the Presidential villa, undermined President Buhari by using the Presidential facility in the Seat of Power to announce his presidential interest. That, to say the least, was felonious.
“Nigerians are also aware of how the APC Presidential Candidate has arrogantly continued to disrespect, disparage and undermine the person of the President and how he had publicly mocked and depicted President Buhari as weak and weeping over losses in presidential elections until, according to him, he (Tinubu) came to his rescue and made him (Buhari) President.