PRESIDENT
Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday said he would neither resign nor convert to
Islam as demanded by the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, as a
condition to ceasefire.
Jonathan, who spoke through his
spokesperson, Reuben Abati, on a day that fivesoldiers died in an attack
on a security patrol team in Damaturu, Yobe State, by a suspected Boko
Haram bomber, described the call as “rude and a mere blackmail.”
“The President cannot be intimidated by
any group or individual. The President will never resign. He has the
mandate of Nigerians to serve his father land and nobody should imagine
that he will succumb to blackmail,” Abati told journalists in Abuja.
The sect, in a broadcast on Saturday
asked Jonathan to either resign or change to Islam before it could lay
down its arms against the country.
“We do not kill women and children but
those who have offended us, arrested our people and kill them,” the
group said in the wake of a promise by Jonathan to end its activities
before the end of June this year.
Abati said it was laughable for any
group in the country to hand down such a condition to a President who
was elected by both Muslims and Christians.
He said, “When Nigerians voted
overwhelmingly for President Jonathan in the 2011 general election, they
knew they were voting for a Christian.
“He continues to enjoy the goodwill and
support of the good people of Nigeria. As President, Dr. Jonathan is the
leader of both Muslims and Christians; in fact; he is the leader of
persons of all faiths.
“So, it amounts to sheer blackmail for
any individual or group to ask the President of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria to convert to Islam.”
In Damaturu on Sunday, a suicide bomber
rammed his car into a military patrol van, killing himself and at least
five soldiers. It was believed that the killer laid an ambush for the
soldiers.
PUNCH
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