Activist faults Jonathan’s response to ACN comments

MARCH 21, 2012 BY MIKE ODIEGWU

Niger Delta activist, Ankio Briggs, on Tuesday described as “irresponsible” the response of the Presidency to the statements by the National Publicity Secretary, Action Congress of Nigeria, on the way the Federal Government handled the Chevron gas rig explosion in Koluama, Southern Ijaw Local Government, Bayelsa State.

Briggs said this in an interview in Yenagoa.

The National Publicity Secretary, ACN, Mr. Lai Mohammed, had criticised the way President Goodluck Jonathan responded to the environmental disasters resulting from the rig explosion accusing Jonathan of treating oil companies with kid gloves.

But the spokesman for the President, Mr. Reuben Abati, lashed out at the opposition party describing its position as “crying more than the bereaved”.

Brigs said it had become obvious that the President was surrounded by bad advisers who were working against his interest and against the collective interest of Nigerians.

Describing Abati’s statement as sad, she recalled that ACN, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Tunde Bakare and other elder statemen and opinion leaders outside the Niger Delta region stuck out their necks to fight against the zoning arrangement in the Peoples Democratic Party that once held Jonathan hostage in the Aso Rock Villa.

via Punch