The Federal Government has passed the blame of rising insurgency and widespread killings in the country to former president Olusegun Obasanjo.

Obasanjo had blasted the Federal Government for failing to acknowledge the magnitude of the situation at hand and allowing insurgency spread.

He said: “They have both incubated and developed beyond what Nigeria can handle alone. They are now combined and internationalized with ISIS in control.

“It is no longer an issue of lack of education and lack of employment for our youths in Nigeria which it began as, it is now West African fulanization, African Islamization and global organized crimes of human trafficking, money laundering, drug trafficking, gun trafficking, illegal mining and regime change.

“Yet, we could have dealt with both earlier, and nip them in the bud, but Boko Haram boys were seen as rascals not requiring serious attention in administering holistic measures of stick and carrot.

Reacting to the comments on Tuesday, Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture faulted the former president for his role in allowing Boko Haram spread.

He said described former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s comments imputing ethno-religious motive to Boko Haram and ISWAP as deeply offensive and patently divisive, saying such indiscreet comments are far below the status of an elder statesman.

“Since the Boko Haram crisis, which had been simmering under the watch of Obasanjo, boiled over in 2009, the terrorist organization has killed more Muslims than adherents of any other religion, blown up more mosques than any other houses of worship and is not known to have spared any victim on the basis of their ethnicity.

“It is therefore absurd to say that Boko Haram and its ISWAP variant have as their goal the ‘Fulanisation and Islamisation’ of Nigeria, West Africa or Africa.

“Boko Haram is a mindless, godless group who are as far away from Islam as one can think of.

“That explains the massive degrading of Boko Haram, which has since lost its capacity to carry out the kind of spectacular attacks for which it became infamous, and the recovery of every inch of captured Nigerian territory from the terrorists.”

A Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday, further adjourned until June 10, the trial of embattled former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, facing N6.9 billion fraud charges.

The case which was slated for continuation of trial, was further adjourned, as Justice Mojisola Olatoregun was said to be on official assignment.

Trial will resume on next adjourned date.

Fayose was arraigned on an 11-count charge by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Oct. 22, 2018, alongside a company, Spotless Investment Ltd.

He pleaded not guilty and was granted bail in the sum of N50 million with one surety in like sum.

The EFCC opened its case on Nov. 19, 2018, and had so far called 13 witnesses.

At the last adjourned date, on May 10, the prosecution had sought an adjournment of the case, after it informed the court that its 13th witness, Adewale Aladegbola, seemed to be hostile.

The court had consequently adjourned the case to enable prosecution decide on its next line of action.

According to the charge, Fayose and one Abiodun Agbele were said to have on June 17, 2014, taken possession of N1.2 billion for funding his gubernatorial election campaign.

The EFCC said that the defendants reasonably ought to have known that the sum formed part of crime proceeds.

Fayose was also alleged to have received a cash payment of five million dollars, (about N1.8 billion) from the then Minister of State for Defence, Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro, without going through any financial institution.

The EFCC noted that the sum exceeded the amount allowed by law.

Fayose was also accused of retaining N300 million in a Zenith bank account and illegally taking control of the aggregate sums of about N622 million.

The former governor was equally alleged to have procured De Privateer Ltd. and Still Earth Ltd. to illegally retain in their Zenith Bank accounts number 1013835889 an aggregate sum of N851 million.

He was also alleged to have unlawfully used about N1.6 billion to acquire property in Lagos and Abuja.

The EFCC equally charged the former governor with unlawfully using N200 million to acquire a property in Abuja in the name of his elder sister, Moji Oladeji.

The alleged offences contravene the provisions of Sections 15(1), 15 (2), 15 (3), 16(2)(b), 16 (d), and 18 (c) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011.