Minister for Police Affairs, Alhaji Jelili Adesiyan has defended Ex- Niger Delta militants, Mujhiden Asari-Dokubo and Government Ekpemupolo also known as Tompolo threat of war, describing it as reactions to what some leaders in some other regions of the country has said.

Adesiyan said though the statements credited to the duo had been condemned by the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other key leaders in the party, including Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd.), who called for their arrest, the police did not arrest them because doing so may further heat up the polity and create undue tension.

The minister noted that if the duo are to be arrested and those who have made similar utterances from other regions are also arrested, the country may be thrown into a turmoil.

According to him, “You know when you throw a stone into water, there is a splash. Yes, PDP has condemned and even Gen. Danjuma has condemned it, he is part of this government and he even asked the security agencies to go after them; because we will not be like them.

“Those people came out to say what they said because there have been drum (beats) of war from the north, even from the candidate who has said that ‘if I don’t win this election, there will be war; blood will flow and things like that and he is creating fears in the minds of the people.

“I think, perhaps, that was why those ex-militants came out to say ‘if that is what you are planning, we too that God has endowed with a son who is the president, if we don’t win too… they are just trying to balance the drum (beats) of war coming from the north. But we don’t believe in all that.

“The law is there and nobody is above the law, if we use the instrument of law to go after these people who are making these provocative statements, it will be turned to another thing. For the first time in the history of this country, a man from a background, after the series of military interregnum in our polity, is now at the helm of affairs; he wants things to be done the way they should be done, not the way he wanted it to be done.

•Excerpted from Newswatch Times. Photo shows Adesiyan.