The Coalition Against Terrorism and Extremism (CATE) has claimed that ex-deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank is suffering from “ telltale signs of induced hallucination”.
CATE’s assertion trails Mr Frank’s allegation that Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General Tukur Buratai and the military high command of a plot to kill him.
This was in reaction to an online message designed by the military in which they accused the foul-mouthed activist of being a “Protagonist of Fake News”.
In a statement by CATE’s national coordinator, Gabriel Onoja, on Friday, in Abuja, there’s a “fresh risks to Nigeria from people like Timi Frank and his paymasters in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who want to use the elections as basis to trigger fresh crisis that will snowball into major security concerns for the country.”
The group, however, urged the military and security agencies to be proactive in addressing the risk posed in this regard.
“ CATE will continue to prefer the outcome whereby the Nigerian Army deals decisive blows to terrorists and prevents them from achieving their goals. Where these goals happen to be in the interest of an opposition party then the party would have to bear the loss of the funds it paid to the terrorists to plan attacks.
“ We do not expect that any sane group or political party will be lamenting an inability to cause terror to citizens, even when the pursuit of the highest office in the land is at stake. It is even more bizarre that the choice of the channel for venting the frustration over the efficient way the Army played its role was to engage a conflicted Timi Frank to tell lies.
“ In his bid to execute this nefarious assignment, Timi Frank, today, issued a false statement with the headline ‘Buratai, Military After My Life, Alleges Timi Frank’.
“Contrary to the false claims in his statement, several groups have acknowledged how the role of the military helped dampened the prospect for violence during the election. The attempt to create the impression that the elections would have run smoothly and safely without military presence borders on irresponsible.
“ To call the content of the said statement a pack of lies is to glorify it and its author because the false allegations made in the statement have all the telltale signs of drug-induced hallucinations. What is remarkable about the statement was the accuracy with which Timi Frank was able to document the content of his hallucination with a vividness that is able to make an undiscerning reader experience his disconnection from reality and the frustration of those that put him up to the task at the same time.
“ But even the knowledge of Timi Frank’s mental state should not justify the risk he constitutes to society. The lies contained in his statement are the encouragement for Boko Haram and other terrorists to regroup and again attempt to reassert themselves over parts of the country; which appears to be intended as an incentive for the terrorists after they were unable to state any remarkable attacks in spite of being mobilized to do so.
“ Meanwhile, Timi Frank has bobby-trapped the security situation in the Niger-Delta such that militants in the area will easily accuse the federal government of responsibility if he were to overdose on illicit drugs or commit suicide. It is in our opinion that the Nigerian Army sets the record straight on how Timi Frank is inconsequential to the point where it would be wasteful to fire even one bullet at him.”
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