The President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, who stated this in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, said: “Nigerians do not need another spate of lawlessness and loss of lives all in the name of ‘revolution’, especially not one that is orchestrated by a man who makes his home in far away New York – and who can easily disappear and leave behind whatever instability he intends to cause, to wit, Nnamdi Kanu.”

The Presidency notes some of the insinuations in the media about the arrest by the Department of State Services (DSS) of the agitator, Omoyele Sowore.

According to the presidential aide, the DSS does not necessarily need the permission of the Presidency in all cases to carry out its essential responsibilities that are laid down in the Nigerian Constitution.

He maintained that Sowore, who called for a revolution to overthrow the democratically elected government of Nigeria,” is a person of interest to the DSS.”

Shehu said: ”He did so on television, and from a privileged position as the owner of a widely read digital newspaper run from the U.S.

“He founded an organisation, Revolution Now, to launch, in their own words, “Days of Rage”, with the publicised purpose of fomenting mass civil unrest and the elected administration’s overthrow.

”No government will allow anybody to openly call for destabilisation in the country and do nothing.

”Mr Sowore is no ordinary citizen expressing his views freely on social media and the internet.

”He was a presidential candidate himself, who ran – and lost – as the flag bearer of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the Feb. 23 general elections.”

He further observed that Nigeria’s democracy was a long time in the making, and was achieved after ”decades of often harsh, military-led overthrows of government: the kind of situation Sowore was advocating.

”To believe in and desire armed revolution is not normal amongst ‘human rights activists’, as Sowore has been incorrectly described.

”Again, it is no surprise that he should be a person of interest to the DSS.” According to Shehu, Nigeria is already dealing with an insurgency that has left millions of people displaced and desperate in the northeastern region of the country.

”The Boko Haram militants, who are behind the violence, also fancy themselves to be fighting for some sort of revolution,” he added.

The presidential aide, therefore, opined that Sowore’s self-imposed predicament is a matter for the DSS, acting under its powers.

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The Peoples Democratic Party in a statement on Sunday asked Buhari to explain to Nigerians what his administration had spent the one billion dollars drawn from the ECA in 2017 on, which was meant to address the nation’s security challenges.

However, Malam Garba Shehu, the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, in a statement in Abuja on Sunday night, said “this unverifiable allegation’’ clearly indicated that the PDP was suffering from socio emotional distress.

Shehu, who pledged to provide more details on the issue on Monday, explained that the N876.9million already spent from the money domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria.

According to him, a balance of 123,111,571.29 dollars has remained unspent at the CBN.

He said: “Here is as much detail as we can provide at this time concerning the USD 1,000 Million from Excess Crude Account which withdrawal was authorised by the National Economic Council.

“The record we have is that the Buhari administration paid 496,374,470 dollars for a dozen Super Tucano fighter aircraft for the Air Force in a direct, government-to-government (no Contractors or Commission Agents) transaction with the government of the U.S. They are due for delivery in 2020.

“Various other military procurements for critical equipment have been made. These are for the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Navy, amounting to 380,513,958,71 dollars.

“These procurements include money for the purchase of Navy Lynx helicopters. Total amount spent so far: 876,888,428.71 dollars.The equipment paid for have due dates of delivery of between six months to two years.

“Balance of the money that is unspent as at today is 123,111,571.29 dollars.”

He said that the entire expenditure involved in these exercises was on the basis of government-to-government procurement.

“In cases where the Nigerian government dealt with equipment manufacturers, their home governments have in all cases given guarantees to the federal government.

“Again, it is important to stress that no contractors or commission agents have been involved in the procurements under discussion.

“All 1,000 million dollars was domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria and to date, not a single Dollar of it has been transferred to the Ministry of Defence or any other ministry, agency of government, individuals or political party office as was the norm under the PDP administration.

“We note that the PDP made so much of a report claiming that the National Security Adviser, NSA had declared the entire amount of 1,000 million dollars as missing.

“The NSA will not have said this. I’am sure he has the correct story to tell. Without approval of end-user certification as issued by his office, no arms can lawfully enter Nigeria.

“In these days of fake news, citizens including political parties pretending to the role opposition parties must be careful about the reports they work with,’’ he said.

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