May 29: There is plot to cause mayhem, Lai Mohammed insists

Ahead of May 29 inauguration of elected leaders, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has insisted that there are plans by some people to cause mayhem in the country.

Speaking in his Oro country home, Irepodun local government area of Kwara state on Saturday at the 12th annual Ramadan lecture he organised, the minister urged Nigerians to pray for peace and unity of the country.

“It is, therefore, appropriate to use this occasion to call on all Nigerians to pray for our dear country, to pray for peace and unity. I make this request against the background of those who are daily plotting to exploit our national fault lines of religion and ethnicity, those who masquerade as democrats but can’t take electoral defeat, those who will not hesitate to collude with anti-democratic forces and dead-enders to fan the embers of violence in the country and those who have elevated their personal ambition over and above our survival as a nation.

“As you are aware, a few days ago, we raised the alarm that either by themselves or via their proxies, the PDP and its presidential candidate are doing everything possible to sabotage the Buhari administration, generally overheat the polity and make Nigeria seemingly ungovernable. Of course, you are aware of similar alarms that have been raised by the police, the military and the DSS.

“Since our intervention, pseudo and partisan analysts have teamed up with the spokesmen for the main opposition party and its presidential candidate to either exhibit their ignorance or to engage in red herring and name calling. We are neither distracted nor dissuaded.

“Our interventions are based on credible evidence, and no government with the kind of evidence that we have, of plans to subvert the power of the state, attack the nation’s economic live wire and generally unleash mayhem on the polity, will keep quiet.

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“The security agencies are all alert to their responsibilities and will not sit by and allow anyone to reverse the gains of our democracy under any guise”, he said.

He urged Nigerians not to relent in praying for the country, especially in the run-up to the May 29 inauguration of President Buhari.

Earlier, the guest lecturer, who is the Chief Imam of Olorunsogo Mosque, Ilorin, Alhaji Soliu Oriire, attributed the defeat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last elections by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to God and people’s doggedness.

Imam Oriire, who said that the entire APC family in the state discarded their differences to come top in the struggle, added that the party should reciprocate with good governance.

“That is why APC won all the elective posts from state House of Assembly, National Assembly, and the governorship in the state. God is expecting you, therefore, to impact positively on the lives of residents of Kwara state. God has sent you on an errand to bring on board fresh air of development in the state”, he said.