Katsina — Senator Muhammad Kanti Bello yesterday criticized Senate President David Mark for blaming northern elders over lingering Boko Haram insurgency, saying the Senate president "must issue an unreserved apology to the northern elders and northern Muslims as well."
Bello told Daily Trust in Katsina yesterday that Mark's statement was aimed at creating more divisions in Nigeria than uniting the country, adding that "as the third citizen of the country, Mark shouldn't have made such statement".
"For him to say that, he must have certain facts that there are some elders in the North that are promoting the Boko Haram insurgency; and therefore he should name them and they should be prosecuted, otherwise we shall view his statement as a political blackmail against every senior Muslim leader in the North", he said.
He said the Senate president must apologize to the northern elders and northern Muslims in general, saying "after all the number of Muslims that were murdered during the Kaduna crisis are 10 times more than the number of Christians who lost their lives in the crisis. But we don't make noise because we want this country to be in peace and we want the country to go together but not at the expense of blackmail and intimidation."
Senator Bello alleged that there have been serious efforts apparently by the government to create divisions between Muslims and Christians in the country, saying "even if this country is going to split, let us split peacefully; we don't have to be killing each other to split the country; there is no reason for it."
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