The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has dismissed the threat by some legislators to commence impeachment proceedings against President Muhammadu Buhari over security challenges across the country.
Mr Mohammed, who was fielding questions from State House correspondents after the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), on Wednesday in Abuja, said there was no need for such an ultimatum, as the government was doing all it could to address the security challenges in the country.
Some senators from opposition political parties, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and some members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), were reported to have expressed frustration over the nation’s security problems, giving the president a six-week deadline to address the issue or face impeachment proceedings.
However, the minister, who lauded the senators for their patriotism and concern, said:
“I want to assure you that the president is aware of all these and as a matter of fact, I think tomorrow there’s going to be another Security Council meeting.
“So, it’s not a matter the president is taking lightly and like I’ll always say, some of the measures we’re going to take are not measures that you can discuss openly here, but we’re as concerned as you are, we’re not going to abandon our responsibility,” he said.
According to him, the federal government is working round the clock, 24 hours, to ensure that the situation is brought under control.
The minister also described the reported threat by terrorists to kidnap the president as laughable and a mere propaganda.
“As to those who have issued threats to Mr President, I think it’s more of propaganda than anything. It’s laughable,” he said.
Mr Mohammed also said that the council approved a memo by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, for a standard operation procedure on maintaining the civilian and humanitarian character of asylum seekers in Cameroon.
He said: “You all know that due to the insurgency in Cameroon, Nigeria has witnessed an influx of Cameroonian asylum seekers and there are basic standard procedures for you to be granted status as an asylum seeker.
“This is what the council considered and approved today. And basically is that anybody from Cameroon who is seeking asylum in Nigeria must first convince the authorities that he or she has actually renounced armed struggle, before you can even be considered as an asylum seeker.
“Also there are cases of some of them who have come even when they claim to have surrendered their arms, go back at times, to join the separatist movement in Cameroon.
“So, the procedure was explained and approved today that will evaluate the basic criteria to grant asylum.
“So, all we have done today is to establish the standard procedure to ensure that those who claim to be asylum seekers are actually not insurgents themselves that have come to destabilise Nigeria or people who will come and be launching attacks against their own country from the comfort of Nigeria,” he said.
(NAN)
