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2019: PDP speaks on alleged plot against Obasanjo and its effect on 2019

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2019: PDP speaks on alleged plot against Obasanjo and its effect on 2019

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has decried the alleged plot to arrest former President Olusegun Obasanjo, describing it as terrifying.

It said the alleged plot against Obasanjo, perceived coercion, intimidation and illegal arrests of those who hold divergent views to President Muhammadu Buhari’s government would not stop Nigerians to vote out the “dysfunctional” All Progressives Congress (APC), the Buhari Presidency and its misrule, come 2019

Obasanjo had on Friday alerted that the Buhari led APC government was plotting to arrest him on trumped up charges and detain him indefinitely.

In its reaction through its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the opposition party said that the revelation was terrifying and has heightened the tension in the polity, adding that it has confirmed PDP’s fears that “our dear nation has descended into a police state where any Nigerian, who holds a divergent view to President Muhammadu Buhari 2019 re-election bid, becomes endangered.”

The statement read in part, “The alarm by Chief Obasanjo has further shown that the PDP has not been crying wolf regarding the plots by the APC Federal Government to frame, arrest, detain and arraign political opponents of the APC, including regular Nigerians, for holding or canvassing opinions that are divergent to the interest of those in power.

“We invite Nigerians to note the travails faced by perceived opponents of Buhari Presidency including Senate President Bukola Saraki, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, Senators Shehu Sani and Dino Melaye, who had raised similar alarms in the past.

“The PDP urges Nigerians to note how APC controlled security forces, on Wednesday, arrested and detained opposition members in Ogun State, including a member of the House of Assembly, Hon Adebiyi Adeleye, who were going about their legitimate activities, only to tag them as cultists.

“The PDP condemns APC’s resort to persecution, intimidation, harassment and framing of our members, as well as dissenting voices, just to suppress the opposition ahead of the 2019 election.

“PDP wants the APC and Buhari Presidency to note that no amount of coercion, intimidation and illegal arrests will alter the determination of Nigerians to vote out the dysfunctional APC and rescue our nation from the shackles of the Buhari Presidency and its misrule, come 2019.”

READ ALSO: ATIKU TO BUHARI: Don’t heat up the polity further, leave Obasanjo alone

Meanwhile, the chairperson of Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), the umbrella organisation of a good number of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the country, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, was quoted as saying in a monitored report that the claim by Obasanjo does not sound like a real threat.

The TMG chairperson added, “However the former President has raised an issue that deserves attention, he needs to prove (it)since he has alleged the existence of threats.

“However nobody is above the law, if he has questions to answer, the government should be free to take him up on it after all former President of South Africa was tried for corruption, so what’s is wrong in trying him? The war against corruption should have no bounds.”

 

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