OPC Wants Buhari To Shun Court Action

The Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) yesterday advised the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and its presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), against challenging the results of the 2011 polls in court.

The group also demanded an apology from Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State to Nigerian youths, students and the entire nation.

The founder of OPC, Dr Frederick Fasheun told journalists in Lagos that any court case by Buhari at this time would smack of insensitivity and would only overheat the polity.

“It is significant that Gen. Buhari’s own coordinators in the South-East have vilified him for contesting the result in their zone, saying that they lost fair and square,’’ he said.

Fasheun said that while Buhari could not be denied his right to seek redress, he should approach the courts only if he was ready to comply with certain conditions.

“In line with due process and in the spirit of coming to equity with clean hands, Buhari and the CPC must permit the scrutiny of incidents of millions of under-age voters reported in parts where he and his party scored sizeable votes.

“He must submit his scores for the subtraction of votes garnered from the vast number of under-age voters.

“Buhari must give an undertaking that should he lose the case, he would forfeit his position as a retired Army General, former Head of State, member of the Council of States and all National Merit Awards,’’ Fasheun said.

On comments reportedly made by Gov. Yuguda over the killing of NYSC members during the violence that trailed the presidential election, Fasheun, described the statement as insulting, provocative, unguarded and reckless.

The governor was quoted by the media as saying that the killing of NYSC members in his state should be accepted as an act of destiny.

The OPC founder said that leaders of ethnic organisations held back from retaliating over the killings of corps members from their zones out of considerations for President Goodluck Jonathan and their love for democracy.

Fasheun demanded a thorough investigation of Yuguda’s role in the brutal killing of youth corps members in Bauchi State.

He noted that Gen. Yakubu Gowon’s regime established the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 1973 as a post-civil war formula to “Keep Nigeria One’’.

“Now that this country is no longer at war, do we still need the NYSC 38 years after? Every year, the country loses young, bright Nigerians in the NYSC to sectarian crisis, mostly in the North.

“Against this background, Nigerians expect that the first assignment of the incoming National Assembly will be to consider a Bill to modify or repeal the NYSC Act,’’ Fasheun said.

He said, however, that if the scheme must be retained, the authorities should put in place a system whereby fresh graduates would serve only within their regions of origin.

Fasheun also urged the Federal Government to immediately institute a compensation and insurance package for corps members, to be funded by the NYSC and the host states.

“The family of any youth corps members who dies in the course of serving his fatherland should receive a minimum compensation of N20 million,’’ he said.