In reaction to governor Murtala Nyako’s  allegation that the federal government is comitting genocide against the north, the presidency has said that the statement is calculated to cause disaffection and division among Nigerians as well as polarize the country along ethnic lines.
 
Nyako in a  memo to the Northern Governors Forum alleged that the federal government is using “mass murderers/cut-throats imbedded in our legitimate and traditional defense and security organizations” to carry out the genocide.”
 
The governor also accused the administration of President Jonathan of a determination to create strife between Muslims and Christians in the north and between one ethnic group and another, by organizing the killing of citizens and then quickly attributing same to the Boko Haram sect.
 
Reacting on behalf of the Presidency, senior special assistant to the President on public affairs, Doyin Okupe, specifically said the memo by Nyako is “extremely divisive and intentionally meant to incite one section of the country against the other.”
 
Okupe expressed regret that the content of the memo which definitely he said defies common sense, portrays Nyako as unfit for the hallowed position of a state governor.
 
“It is perhaps necessary to request the Adamawa Governor to publish his yearly budget for the past five years and disclose how much has been voted or spent to support the war on terror or assist victims of insurgents activities in his state,” Okupe said.
 
He recalled a recent attack on Nyako by a group of angry youths whom he said accused the governor “of nonchalance and failure to support victims of Boko Haram’s murderous onslaught on innocent citizens of the state.”
 
The President’s spokesman also noted that “Governor Nyako was recently quoted as having boasted openly that now that the Fulani herdsman can assemble the AK47 gun, the security equilibrium in the country is now balanced.”
 
He added that “Nyako’s opposition to the declaration of a state of emergency in three states of the North east as well as his repeated calls for the withdrawal of the military from troubled states without any credible alternative or security road map, is an open endorsement of the activities of the insurgents.”
 
According to him, the aim is to provide insurgents operating in the region with unrestricted opportunity to further unleash terror on innocent citizens in order to precipitate chaos, instability, mayhem and anarchy.
 
Okupe therefore urged Nigerians to disregard the content of the governor’s memo while assuring that the federal government will continue to employ all legitimate means at its disposal to defeat terror and restore peace to every part of northern Nigeria.
 
Meanwhile, the director of defence information, Chris Olukolade, has dismissed the allegations of ethno-religious biases contained in Nyako’s letter as baseless and untrue.

“I want to tell you that there is no iota of truth in all his allegations and that the military remains professional in all their operations. There is no ethnic colouration in all our decisions,” he stressed.