JUST IN: Be Ready To Face The Consequences Of Treason, Presidency Warns APC

We have noted with utter disdain, the reckless and irresponsible
call by the APC on Sunday for the National Assembly to commence impeachment
proceedings against President Goodluck Jonathan.

Ordinarily, we would not have dignified Alhaji Lai
Mohammed’s latest vituperations in the service of his paymasters with a
response, but we thought it necessary to warn that the Federal Government will
not standby idly and let the nation be plunged into unnecessary crises and
political instability because of the desperation and apparent readiness of the
APC spokesman and his gang of power-seeking desperadoes to sacrifice the
well-being of the country on the altar of their selfish personal ambitions.

The Presidency totally condemns the decision by Alhaji
Mohammed and his party to move further beyond the bounds of honourable and
acceptable political conduct with the senseless call for the impeachment of a
President who continues to sincerely devote himself to the discharge of the
sacred mandate freely given to him by Nigerians.

The APC, which remains a minority party with doubtful
credentials in the National Assembly, knows fully well that its attempt to
hector and blackmail a Parliament dominated by loyal members of the President’s
party, the PDP, into an impeachment process, will come to nothing.

But it has cavalierly embarked on this outrageous gambit,
with scant regard for peace, order, security and political stability in the
country, in furtherance of its  dastardly
and heinous strategy of over-heating the polity and working to cause public
disaffection against the Jonathan Presidency 
with lies, false accusations and unjustifiable indictments  ahead of the 2015 general elections.

The emptiness and hollowness of the APC’s call for President
Jonathan’s impeachment will be obvious to all objective and discerning
Nigerians who read through the statement issued by Alhaji Mohammed today. It
was long on self-serving rhetoric and falsehoods, but lacked a single clearly
defined charge on the basis of which any plausible impeachment proceedings
against the President can be initiated.

All that the APC could offer in justification of its absurd
and hare-brained impeachment call was a rehash of its well-worn litany of
baseless accusations against the President, including some for which culpability
should be laid squarely at the doorsteps of its own leaders and some of their
new friends.

The Presidency also considers it utterly deplorable that the
APC has, in its Machiavellian desperation to seize control of the Federal
Government, recklessly assailed the integrity and honour of the Nigerian
Judiciary in a callous attempt to 
pre-empt the outcome of the  case
legitimately brought against it by some of its new friends by the PDP.

Alhaji Mohammed’s unscrupulous effort to drag the nation’s judiciary
into its murky political warfare and his readiness to intimidate and
blackmail  members of the bench so as to
secure a favourable outcome for his party in the pending case clearly shows
that nothing is beyond the pale for him and the APC in pursuit of their quest
for power.

The Jonathan Administration does not need Lai Mohammed or
the APC to remind it of its constitutional responsibility for the security and
well-being of Nigerians. The President will continue to do his utmost best to
achieve positive national transformation in all areas in spite of efforts by
the opposition to thwart or disparage the work of his administration.

In this regard, we have noted the undisguised threat by the
APC to foster public insurrection against the Federal Government if pending
legal cases go against it. We urge Nigerians to take special note of this
boastful indication of an intention to resort to lawlessness.

The Presidency warns that the APC and any persons who make
themselves its willing tools for the breach of public order and safety will be
made to face the full sanctions of the law. Those who are threatening fire and
brimstone should be ready for consequences of treasonable action. 

The APC’s false copy-cat 
allegation that 1, 000 snipers are being trained by the Jonathan
Administration clearly shows that they are now 
in cahoots with some other elements who are bent on discrediting this
administration and inciting the public against it.

President Jonathan is running a people’s government. He does
not need any snipers. His legitimacy comes from the people. Those who are
alleging the existence of snipers should step forward and provide the evidence
or shut up forever and go down in history as spineless cowards, driven by sheer
greed and indecency.

We dismiss the APC’s call for the President’s impeachment as
opportunistic, partisan and ill-motivated.

We call on patriots to make the necessary distinction
between such reckless violations of civic duty and the urgent need to protect
the integrity of the Nigerian nation against those who for selfish reasons have
declared their readiness to stop at nothing.

Reuben Abati

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)

December 15, 2013