Leon Usigbe
12 August 2001
Kaduna — Former Head of State, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), declared Friday he would not appear before the Human Rights Violation Investigations Commission (HRVIC) unless the law establishing it was reviewed.
He gave the condition in an interview on the Hausa Service of Voice of America (VOA) monitored in Kaduna.
Apparently with Dr. Umaru Dikko who petitioned against him in mind, General Buhari remarked that the law establishing the commission does not give it the right to entertain petitions on incidents that took place outside Nigeria.
Dr. Dikko who was Minister of Transport in the second republic had dragged the former Nigerian leader to the Oputa Panel over the attempt to forcibly repatriate him from exile in Britain by General Buhari's junta.
He did not comment further but vowed never to work for the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo who he accused of scrapping the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) which he (Buhari) led, without any just cause.
Said he: "I will never work in a place like PTF again. What happened to PTF was wrong.
"People were not happy about it and the whole country is deprived of the services it rendered.
"I did not go there to work for myself. I worked for the whole nation.
"Why am I being accused of aligning with Abacha by some people? Did he not ask me to come and help?
"That was exactly what I did. I gave conditions and I was allowed to do my job," he stated.
General Buhari recalled that he was forced to resign his appointment as PTF chairman because of President Obasanjo's remarks during his electioneering campaign.
"He said that he would stop my work and he actually scrapped PTF without any serious reason.
"I cannot work for this government. I worked for Abacha because he was much more serious," General Buhari emphasised.
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