Call Junaid To Order Over First Lady Comments – Lawyers Tell Arewa

Date Posted: 30/06/2013

Lawyers under the aegis, League of Rivers Lawyers in Abuja yesterday urged the leadership of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF to as a matter of urgency, call to order, Dr Muhammad Junaid over his comments on Dame Patience Jonathan.

The Lawyers also asked Junaid to proffer curative solutions to the ravaging activities of Boko Haram sect in the north rather than waste his energy castigating President Goodluck Jonathan’s wife.

Chairman of the group, Timi Briggs while reacting, yesterday, to the story published in Sahara Reporters and credited to Dr Muhammad Junaid, noted in a statement that Junaid made derogatory remarks about the First Lady over what he perceives as her role in the Rivers State crises.

“The League took exception to the use of foul language to describe Nigeria’s First Lady and wondered why an educated, responsible and “an all knowing man” like Dr Junaid is now the one acting most irresponsibly like a stark illiterate,” Briggs said.

“Rather than dissipating energy and time talking about Rivers State politics when his region is on fire and its economy broken by the activities of Boko Haram sect, Dr Junaid has remained dumb and helpless. By calling Mrs Jonathan names, Dr Junaid is behaving like a gangster by saying that Mrs Jonathan has no right to comment over the affairs of her state.

“If Dr Junaid is looking for what to talk or work to do, the collapse of the Northern economy, rising unemployment, illiteracy and alarming insecurity under his nose are enough engagement rather than abusing Mrs Jonathan.

“What is his interest in Rivers State? Why is he crying more than the bereaved? A character like Dr Junaid thinks he has a monopoly of odious language and rascality because he is one of those deceiving Governor Rotimi Amaechi to be spending public funds to betray his brother and pursue a Northern agenda.

“The First lady has not done anything in Rivers State that will warrant her to be insulted by Dr Junaid and his ilk. In fact, all her activities during her recent visit to her State were merely reconciliatory and aimed at increasing collaboration among the political class so that the state can move forward.

“Rather than call for total reconciliation for peace to return to Rivers State, Dr Junaid is happy that Governor Amaechi is operating like an emperor.

“What did Mrs Jonathan do that other First Ladies did not do and even more?

“Nigerians saw it happen where a first Lady was the de facto President and was calling the shot in Aso Rock and yet Dr Junaid saw nothing wrong with that. Or is Mrs Jonathan being abused by Junaid because her husband is a President from a minority tribe in Nigeria?

“No matter whose interest Junaid is protecting, the people of the South South will not allow him or Amaechi and their cohort to pull the wool over the eyes of the people of that region come 2015.

“The political crisis in Rivers State PDP is not new in Nigeria. It is normal in a democracy and there is nothing to suggest a semblance of the old Western Region crises except as it exists in the demented mind of Dr Junaid.

“The relationship between the police and the governor in the state can be better handled if both sides drop pride but to say that Amaechi is right over and above all the other Rivers men and women he has been oppressing and intimidating with the police in the past is to say the least, shameful on the part of Dr Junaid.

“It is on this note that the League calls on the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to call their son Dr Muhammad Junaid to order because everybody will benefit from a peaceful Nigeria and not the crises that Junaid is stoking,” the statement read.