The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Preaidential Campaign Council, (PPCO) said peaceful election cannot be guaranteed over President Muhammadu Buhari’s alleged, harassment, intimidation, unleash violence and provocative acts of totalitarianism against opposition figures and persons perceived to be against his self succession bid.
Addressing journalists in Abuja on Sunday, PDP Publicity Secretary and the PPCO director media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan alerted the entire world and particularly the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen of the alleged ongoing use of the Police “to clamp down on opposition figures, particularly members of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council and outspoken CSOs on trumped-up criminal charges.
He explained that, ” part of the plot is to charge such individuals before certain compromised judicial officers, in various states, who have been briefed to detain, silence and put such opposition figures and CSO members out of circulation until after elections are concluded.
“Particular cases at hand are those of our Presidential Campaign Director on Civil Societies, Senator Dino Melaye, who is being hounded for his outspokenness against the misrule of the Buhari Presidency, as well as Civil Rights activist, Deji Adeyanju, who is widely believed to have been held down in prison because of his scathing criticism against the violations of the rights of Nigerians by the Buhari Presidency, he added.
Ologbondiyan also recalled that “Senator Dino Melaye had earlier alerted of plots by the Police to arrest and poison him. His present ordeal as well as those of the civil rights activist, Deji Adeyanju, in the hands of the Buhari-led authorities, is incendiary in an election year and we insist that no harm must come to them or any member of the opposition or CSOs, before, during and after the elections.
According to him, ” the PPCO is aware that the aim is to use the state apparatus of power to attempt to instill fear in Nigerians, stifle free speech, cow opposition and CSOs to silence so as to pave for President Buhari’s self-succession.
This is a clear attempt to return our nation to the nightmares of the 1984 when draconian leaders forcefully subjugated innocent Nigerians under the grips of military Decree 2 and we urge the CJN to save our nation by insulating the judiciary from this ignoble scheme.
Ologbondiyan described the situation as preposterous for anybody, no matter how highly placed, to think that the PDP and its candidate Atiku Abubakar, can be subdued out of the political space in our country.
PDP Publicity Secretary also counseled President Buhari to “tame his desperation for power. Our nation has had many Presidents before President Buhari and there will be many more after him.
“President Buhari will not be the first President to be defeated in an election as such he should not set our nation on fire just because he is feeling the air of rejection due to his incompetence and the gale of corruption in his administration, he added.
Despite all these, Ologbondiyan revealed that, ” our party is courageously going into the general elections with the support of overwhelming majority of Nigerians and they are not ready to accept any result that does not reflect their already expressed wishes and aspirations.
