The opposition Peoples Democratic Party has alleged threat to lives of key members of its party, saying Nigeria is gradually sliding into dictatorship.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said specifically that the Deputy Senate President and a member of the party, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has been under harassment from security agencies.
Metuh, therefore, said in very clear terms that the “government and APC leaders should be held responsible should any harm come upon the Deputy Senate President or any of our party leaders for that matter.
“We state this because information available to us indicates that there are also plans to compromise security around the Deputy Senate President to make him vulnerable and open for sponsored violent attacks.
“As we address you today, some key leaders of our party have been under threat since the emergence of the leadership of the National Assembly which did not go the way of the leadership of the APC, particularly, the election of PDP’s Senator Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President.
“As you may know, the APC leaders have not hidden their bitterness and resentment towards Senator Ekweremadu whose offence is the privilege of being elected by his colleagues (APC and PDP senators alike) as Deputy Senate President in line with the Standing Rules of the Senate and the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
The PDP said President Muhammadu Buhari, who had earlier restated his willingness to work with anybody elected by the legislature, has been put under intense pressure, resulting in his statement on the emergence of Ekweremadu, which is now being misconstrued by some of his overzealous party members and security officials.
Metuh said: “We therefore urge the President to bear in mind that the onus therefore lies on him to moderate the political temperature of the country by calling his overbearing party members and security officials to order.”
The opposition party alleged that to ensure that Ekweremadu vacates his opposition, the government and the APC has directed the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, to execute the agenda to incarcerate him and declare the position vacant.
Metuh spoke further: “The Inspector General of Police, acting on instructions has invited the Deputy Senate President with a view to arresting him over phantom charges as a build up to incarcerate him, create a vacuum in the Senate and pave way for the imposition of APC preferred senator to take over his position.
“We are aware that some APC senators opposed to the emerge of Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively met last week and concocted a petition accusing the Deputy Senate President of altering the Senate Rules on the process of election of the Presiding Officers, upon which the police via a letter dated July 1, 2015 and signed by the Deputy Inspector General in charge of criminal investigation at the Force Headquarters has invited him to appear tomorrow, Monday, July 6, 2015 where he will be detained and put under pressure.
“Apart from the fact that the Nigerian Constitution clearly guarantees the two chambers of the National Assembly the powers to regulate their proceedings without external interference, we note that the petition by this group of senators who enjoy the sympathy of some APC leaders lacks merit as Senator Ekweremadu or any other senator-elect prior to the inauguration of the Senate and the election of presiding officers, could not have been involved in the process of producing the 2015 Standing Rules of the Senate which was strictly done by the bureaucracy under the Clerk to the National Assembly.
“Furthermore, Senator Ekweremadu was not in any way involved in the process other than being nominated for the position of the Deputy Senate President and could not have been privy to the secret ballot procedure adopted by the National Assembly bureaucracy, which has been widely adjudged as transparent and credible.
“Also, apart from plans to use security apparatus against the Deputy Senate President, we have information that there are instructions to certain officials at the now National Electoral Commission to alter some electoral documents and records in order to create the impression that Senator Ekweremadu did not file proper documents for the general elections to eventually pave way for his removal.
“We are also aware that part of the plot is a conspiracy to tarnish Senator Ekweremadu’s image and open him to public ridicule. Last Monday, some APC leaders met in Abuja to perfect a plot to blackmail the Deputy Senate President by planting outlandish publications against him in the media.”
While hoping that the era of political assassination is not about to return to Nigeria, the PDP said it will not consider it a mere coincidence “if our key leaders suddenly become victims of terror attacks or are suddenly killed by armed robbers. This is especially as we are aware that the APC has even gone to the ridiculous extent of trailing key PDP leaders and bugging their telephone lines”.
The PDP vowed that no amount of threat, intimidation and blackmail will make the Deputy Senate President to abandon the mandate freely given to him by the Senate or compel the PDP to abdicate its responsibility as an opposition party, “a role we will continue to play with every sense of restrain, civility, maturity and patriotism.
“On this note, we urge all our citizens, the civil society and indeed the international community to note the development in Nigeria; the onslaught against the opposition; the eroding of personal freedom, threats to lives, disruption of the legislative activities of the National Assembly, undermining of the independence of our electoral body and other dangerous signal that the nation may be on a slide to totalitarianism.”
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