Dimapur, Nov 13 (Mexn): Venting his fury against the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee, Home Minister Thenucho said in a release that the allegations leveled against him were, “baseless, malicious and politically motivated with the intention to mislead the people.” The Congress had earlier demanded the resignation of the Home Minister and had contended that he had a role to play in the recent Pfutsero abduction case. Clarifying on why he had reached Pfutsero on November 9, a day before the abduction of the Pastor and six other public leaders, Thenucho said the actual purpose of his visit was to inaugurate the Immanuel Baptist Church Sales Day after which he had to immediately return to Kohima to attend the funeral service of Late Hesso Mao.
“I would like to clarify here that I had not gone to Pfutsero for any other purposes such as to threaten my own people—which is the last thing I would ever do—as alleged by the Congress party leader,” he said. The NPF leader announced that the people who attended the brief function were witnesses to his not mentioning anything about the memorandum and declared that he had not in any way issued threats to the signatories to withdraw the memorandum.
The memorandum was a complaint against the DAN government and a request to the Governor to intervene under the provisions of Article 355 and 371 (A) of the Constitution, Thenucho informed. “However it appears that the signatories have been misled by persons with vested interests, as it had been made known that many of them were asked to sign without the contents and in some instances the signatures were forged,” he said. The government he said was taking the abduction episode seriously and the matter had been taken up with the Cease Fire Monitoring Group and other concerned parties for the safe and early release of those in the custody of the NSCN (IM).
