Why We Pardoned Ex-Biafran Soldiers - Obasanjo
Decries indiscipline in PDP
From Josephine Lohor and Efem Ukanga in Uyo
President Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed what informed his decision to change the dismissal order given to officers of Nigerian Army who served in Biafra to retirement.
The President stated that the disqualification of the late Gen. Philip Effiong who led the Biafran Army to surrender in 1970 to contest election because he was dismissed from the army was one of the reasons that changed the dismissal to retirement.
Speaking at a gala nite and dinner organised by the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah, as part of events marking his three-day visit to the state, Obasanjo described as "the height of injustice, a situation where Chief Emeka Ojukwu, the leader of Biafra, was allowed to contest election while Effiong was not."
Responding to request by Attah that Effiong be honoured, Obasanjo said, "Due to the reasons why the dismissal of officers of Nigerian Army who served in Biafra changed to retirement was because of the late General Effiong and what happened? Because he came to see me sometime ago and he said to me you know I wanted to contest election and they said I was disqualified.
"I said what have you done? And Effiong said they said it was because I was dismissed from the Army. I said, well if you were disqualified then what happened to Chukwuemeka Ojukwu? Is there any reason why he was disqualified? I then said that was the height of injustice. Since Ojukwu was not disqualified and you were disqualified then I will look into it.
"What did I do? I ask people who were in fact there before what really happened and put it upon myself that those dismissal will be changed to retirement," he said.
Obasanjo also added that the agitation to honour Effiong should be stopped. "I will suggest that we should leave it there, I suggest governor that we should leave it there. At times what I know you may not know and when you do not know what I know when I say you should leave it there you should leave there.
While commending Attah for transforming Uyo, the President who said the disagreement between him and the governor was "that of human interaction" however, decried indiscipline in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He noted that "we must disagree on principle and not on what is called frivolities or trivialities and if we disagree on principle, then let us know what principle we disagreed on. I disagree on principle of party discipline with the governor. We belong to the same party but he has no right to criticise me as President of Nigeria and I have no right either to criticise him publicly.
"But if he criticised me publicly, it is not a personal issue, it is a political issue and it is a party issue and if our party were grounded this kind of thing would not happen. If the party fails I will take it upon myself to discipline him. It is simple that you have nothing to worry about and I love him," the President added.
Obasanjo disclosed that "the Federal Government is coming up with a law that would make it mandatory for bread and confectionery producers to put not less than 10 per cent of cassava flour in the product that would make us to require more than 300 tonnes of cassava".
Also in reaction to a request by the governor that the late Dr Clement Isong, the first indigenous governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) be immortalised, Obasanjo urged the CBN to honour the first and second Nigerian governors of the bank.
He noted that "the Federal Government would do whatever we have to do to create a conducive environment to invest in Nigeria because if we do not do that the investors can go elsewhere and the fact that they have chosen Nigeria shows an element of confidence in our country and we will do anything possible to buoy that confidence which they have in our country.
Earlier in his address, Attah asked for federal polytechnic and financial support from the ecological fund amongst others.
The President's visit ended yesterday with a church service at a Catholic Church, Aka Junction in Uyo.
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