In this interview, a chieftain of reformed All Progressive Congress (APC) and former ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, Alhaji Buba Galadima speaks on many burning national issues.
What is your take on the Federal Government’s decision to release Sowore and Dasuki after five months and four years’ extra-judicial detention in DSS custody in defense of court orders to release them on bail?
I don’t believe they were released on compassionate grounds as they claimed. A day to their release I asked in an interview about civil society organizations whose members were beaten up by hooligans allegedly sponsored by the state. I told them I was disheartened and felt very bad that the government has to resort to hooliganism by deliberately setting people against innocent citizens. My view has been very simple. This government has no idea what opposition is, so whatever civil society does is perceived to be promoted by people who oppose it. Therefore, it was my view that what it has done to the civil society groups would become a catalyst in bringing out some positive results for the country, because I still hold that once the government decides to do that to the civil society groups outside world would speak and that this government would not be able to resist pressure from the outside world. In fact, it is on record in that interview where I said that this government never fears anything like America and Europe and thank God the following day after my interview the American Ambassador presented her credentials to the president and after the presentation, she brought a letter written by the congressmen and senators of the United States. It was said that the president was very jittery and called his attorney general to apologize to America and release Sowore.
It was because of Sowore that the letter was written and Dasuki became beneficiary. Actually, El-Zakzakky would have become a beneficiary of what happened but for the reason that somebody gave a legal position that El-Zakzakky was sued by the Kaduna State Government, not by the Federal Government, and that was why he was not released on that day.
