Boko Haram Is A Tool To Destabilize Jonathan's Government - SSPA

PORT HARCOURT, August 28, (THEWILL) – Boko Haram has been described as a political tool in the hands of disgruntled powerful northern interests who are poised to destabilize the government of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the umbrella group of the Niger Delta region, the South South Peoples Assembly has said.

In a Sunday statement signed by Ambassador Mathew Mbu, Justice Karibi Whyte (rtd) and Dr. Kalada Iruenabere, the Assembly warned the “power merchants and economic parasites” orchestrating the violence and bombings in northern Nigeria to know that they stand to lose more if Nigeria is pushed to the brink of war.

“Let all those sponsoring these acts of terrorism know that while it is easy to tell the beginning of a war, no one can tell its end. Those who stand to lose the most should not be the ones pushing this country to the brink,” the Assembly said.

“The SSPA does not believe that the Boko Haram of today is the offshoot of the one crushed by the Yar’Adua administration. Rather, we are convinced that the name has become a metaphor for a more sophisticated struggle for political power. We dare say that it is a tool in the hands of those who threatened to make this country ungovernable and those who lectured us on the inevitability of violent change in the heat of the struggle for the Jonathan presidency.

“Boko Haram cannot be pursuing a religious agenda, for, it should be obvious to its ideologues that exploding bombs in Abuja will do very little to advance the cause of its fanatical Islamic ideology.

“On the contrary, we are convinced that the group’s agenda, which clearly is that of its urbane sponsors, is to make the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan unworkable,” the SSPA added.

The Assembly commiserated with the UN, the federal government and families who lost dear ones in the suicide bombing.