By Enabulele Adesuwa
Chief Martin Onovo compared the Benin Republic’s response to a recent coup plot with that of the Nigerian government, describing Nigeria’s approach as a prolonged failure to effectively address terrorism over the past 50 months.
Chief Martin Onovo, who was the presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP) in 2015, accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of sponsoring insecurity and terrorism in Nigeria.
According to reports, Onovo alleged that the APC operated a combat network linked to its own members, referencing multiple instances which he claimed demonstrated the party’s involvement in violent activities across Nigeria.
He referred to statements from prominent figures, including former President Muhammadu Buhari, who reportedly said, “An attack against Boko Haram is an attack against the North,” and former Borno State Governor and current Vice President Kashim Shettima, who had called for granting amnesty to Boko Haram members.
“Unless we want to engage in an endless war of attrition that will be hallmarked by the continuing destruction of lives and property, it becomes imperative that willing members of the Boko Haram sect who want to come out of the bush must be given the opportunity to be de-radicalised and then rehabilitated to become useful citizens of society,” Shettima said in May 2025.
Additional evidence he cited included testimonies from military and intelligence officials, such as General Theophilus Danjuma (retd.), who stated, “The Armed Forces are not neutral; they are colluding with the armed bandits killing citizens,” and Kunle Olawunmi, a retired Navy Commodore, former Military Attaché to France, and former Commandant of the Defence Intelligence College, who stated that the government “already knew these people”.
Chief Onovo also referenced recent court cases, including a Dubai court conviction which allegedly connected Nigerian terrorist sponsors to current ruling party officials, as well as the alleged confession of Alhaji Kawu Baraje, a founding leader of the APC, who reportedly admitted that “we imported the Fulani terrorists for the 2015 elections”.
He added that the evidence proved beyond “reasonable doubt” that the APC was the “direct sponsor of insecurity and terrorism in Nigeria”.