Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has urged and pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to pardon the convicted soldiers in a keynote address she delivered yesterday in Lagos.
Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili
Former Minister of Education Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to pardon soldiers convicted of mutiny in the fight against Boko Haram during the last administration.
The pleas was made during a keynote address delivered by the #Bring Back Our Girls Convener.
Ezekwesili gave reasons why the soldiers should be pardoned by the president as she said the soldiers were wrongly punished for refusing to fight the insurgency ill-equipped.
Delivering a keynote address: “A Caring Society Grows Faster and Better”, at the launch of the Bunmi Adedayo Foundation in Lagos yesterday, Mrs Ezekwesili said the diversion of the funds was a demonstration of how leaders and citizens exhibit ‘I don’t care’ attitude towards governance.
She said: “The exemplification of a society of ‘I don’t care’ could not have been worse in manifestation than revelations that while the tragedy went on in the Northeast, those responsible for governance sat around the table, watched citizens being taken out by the bunions of terror and felt comfortable to share the resources meant to equip the soldiers and then turned around and said to those among the soldiers that refused to be sent on a suicide mission that they deserved to die.
“How else can you define ‘I don’t care’? I hope you will join me in telling the President that those soldiers don’t deserve to die. Our President must used the prerogative of mercy that the constitution gives him to waive any kind of charges against those ones, we are not saying all soldiers; because some may have misbehaved in the course of this war. But we are saying that it is reprehensible that our society will degenerate to the level where leaders, who as are found in other societies, stay awake worried about the challenges of their citizens, in our own case, stayed awake sharing the resources meant to protect the territory and the people.”
The event was held at the Shell Hall of the MUSON Centre and was attended by important dignitaries including: Chief launcher Mrs Daisy Danjuma, who gave N5 million; Co-launcher Justice George Oguntade (N2 million); Mr Foluso Philips of Philips Consulting; Alhaji Abdulrasaq Okoya, chairman of Eleganza Group; Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, member of BAF Foundation BOT; among others.