Jonathan Demands Apology From Muslim Right Concern For Accusing Him Of Promoting Zionism

President Goodluck Jonathan has demanded apology from the Muslim Right Concern (MURIC) for accusing him of promoting Zionism.
The President, through his special adviser on media and publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, in a statement today said that it is not true that he is using the highest office in the country to promote Zion nation.
“I think that is a most unfortunate statement coming from Professor Akintola of MURIC and for which they owe me an apology.”
The President who was
reacting to a statement signed by Professor Ishaq Akintola, the Director of MURIC, denied the allegation against him that there is a Jewish symbol in the proposed commemorative new N100 note, which will be officially issued on December 19.
Jonathan said he found Professor Akintola’s allegations rather curious, adding: “he needs to be told that I am not anti-Muslim as he alleges. I am the President of all Nigerians, whatever may be their beliefs.”
On the MURIC director’s allegation that Muslims were marginalized in the national conference, the President described it as a very unfortunate thing to say.
According to him, the truth is that the national conference organised by this administration has been praised and described as one of the best of such conferences ever organised in this country.
“It was a purposeful conference, a conference in which a lot of maturity was displaced. Religion did not become a big issue in that conference. “Rather, the conference became a platform for addressing many issues of general concern to various groups, ethnic or religious.
“MURIC cannot claim not to know that that was a very successful conference.”
On MURIC allegation that the security system in Aso Rock is saturated with Israeli security operatives, the President described it as a blatant lie.
“There are no Israeli security operatives saturating the security system in Aso Rock. To convince himself that this is true, we will like to invite Prof. Akintola on a visit to the Presidential Villa, to see whether indeed it is Israelis that are in charge of security.
“The security operatives in the Villa are not foreigners, they are Nigerians and there is no connection with Israel whatsoever.
“The premised of the issue that formed the basis for Akintola’s vituperation is wrong and he is misinformed.
“The symbol his statement is referring to is the Star of David. “There is no where on that proposed note as indicated in the specimen that has been widely publicized where there is any Jewish or Zionist symbol or the Star of David.The Star of David is a hexagram which is two triangles of equal lines superimposed on each other. The hexagram is a very popular symbol but it is not on that naira note.
“The symbol that he is referring to is not a Jewish symbol. It is what they call spark security feature. It is an optical magnetic feature which enables the public to authenticate a currency note whether it is genuine or counterfeit. “That is the function of that particular design. That design is not an hexagram and it is not in any way associated with Israel or Jewish or Zionism. It is two squares merged into one with a Manila briquet, which is a symbol of the cowrie money used during the colonial era. It is an attempt on the part of MURIC to cause disaffection because on the design of that note, the value of that note is written out in the three major languages in Nigeria, recognized in the constitution: Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa.
He said that no attempt has been made to use this proposed naira note to discriminate against anybody and the attack on me is undeserved, unwarranted and totally unkind.”
He believed that MURIC will see the need to quickly apologise for misleading the public and for issuing that kind of statement that can cause disaffection against him. [myad]