Former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor (retd.), has called for decisive action, including arrest, against politicians and other prominent Nigerians who make inciting statements capable of triggering violence and disrupting the peace of the country.

His call followed a recent statement by the Senator representing Osun East, Francis Fadahunsi, in a viral video in which he was alleged to have directed his supporters to kill members of the Accord Party and their family members ahead of the governorship election in the state.

Following the backlash over the statement, the lawmaker was invited by the police for questioning, after which he insisted that his statement had been edited to misrepresent his comment.

Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Thursday, Irabor condemned the senator’s statement and commended the police for questioning him.

“For me as a person, any time we hear individuals who make inciting comments, I think that such people should be picked up immediately, and that is why I am glad that even though the statement made by Senator Fadahunsi is a political one, but I think that it also borders on incitement to violence. I think the police have done the right thing by inviting him, and he should be questioned even beyond that,” General Irabor said.

The former military chief also called for the arrest of Islamic clerics Sani Jingir and Ahmad Gumi over what he described as inciting statements they had made at different times.

“Added to that is of course the Sheik in Kano, Sheik Jingir, who also made some comments which of course I believe is also inciting that could also add to the bouquet of threats that we have, he also should be arrested and I also believe that the various comments that someone like Gumi has been making also demands that he be called not just to order but of course invited and arrested in other to let the populace know that there is nobody who is above the law and then when you say things that are not right you should be called in to answer,” the former service chief said.

Irabor further noted that taking action against individuals who make statements capable of inciting violence would boost the morale of the country’s defence and security forces.

He also linked inflammatory rhetoric by political actors to the military’s decision to deploy troops during elections, saying such deployments should not ordinarily be necessary.

“It is something that is concerning to me and to all well-meaning Nigerians. This is not, of course, what we hope to see; this is not good enough. And of course, when languages like Senator Fadahunsi used, when we begin to hear them, they are reminiscent of the first republic. I thought that now that we are in the fourth republic, we would have learnt from our history and so we don’t want a repeat of that.

“And I think that it is because of such languages that the military wouldn’t want to see a deterioration of the security situation to such a level that we may not be able to contain. So, their presence, which, of course, is what we call Operation Safe Conduct, is just more of a deterrence deployment, not necessarily because they must be involved in electioneering duties,” General Irabor added. (Channels)

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