TheCable

Obadiah Mailafia, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says insecurity is worse under the Buhari administration than that of Sani Abacha.

Abacha was Nigeria’s military ruler from 1993 to 1998, and his administration was notorious for political assassinations.

Mailafia made the comment in an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday.

The former CBN governor is known for making unverifiable allegations and claims.

His statement followed the attack on Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue state.

Gunmen suspected to be herdsmen had attacked Ortom last Saturday while he was on his farm, near Markudi, the state capital.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mailafia described the attack on Ortom as an attack on the people of Benue.

“This attempt on the life of an executive governor and incumbent of a state is an attempted attack on the entire people of the state. Those who are trying to do this wicked thing need to understand the implication of what they are trying to do,” he said.

“If the governor of a state cannot feel safe to go to his farm, how will the ordinary Benue people feel going to their farms? This is a very bad precedent. The circumstances in Borno are very different. Borno is a war zone, we’ve been living with these evil people for a while but what happened in Benue is totally different and diabolical. We don’t know what they are trying to do but this could affect the whole country.”

Mailafia lamented the state of security in the country, saying Abacha would not have tolerated such attacks.

He said some world powers want to destroy Nigeria by turning different parts of the country against each other.

“This is totally unprecedented. This is the worst time ever in the history of Nigeria. You can’t even compare with Abacha’s time; Abacha’s time was a golden era compare with what is happening. You think Abacha would have tolerated all these? You can’t travel on these roads, killings everywhere, destructions everywhere,” he said.

“World powers want to destroy Nigeria and what they have done is to come and meet some people and tell them, ‘You are born to rule’. There is an agenda (ex-President Olusegun) Obasanjo called Fulanisation and enforcement of one particular religion against the rest.”