PDP alleges mass arrest of its members in South South

Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has alleged that the Nigerian military is carrying out mass arrest of its members in South South states.

According to the party in a statement signed by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan on Wednesday night, the military, has been arresting members of the party in Rivers, Delta and Akwa Ibom states ahead of the March 9 governorship and state assembly elections.

The PDP also alleged that the Presidency and the All Progressives Congress, APC, has turned the South South into a war zone, in their “desperation to suppress voters, manipulate the electoral process and forcefully take over control of the states.”

The party further claimed that in Rivers state, its leaders were “being hounded and forcefully picked up in a well-coordinated operation by military operatives attached to the Director General of Buhari’s Campaign Organization and Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.”

The statement reads: “Our party has received reports on how soldiers led by one Major Mustapha Bello from Sokoto Division, manhandled, arrested and took away the Rivers State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Tam Gogo Jaja to an unknown destination.

“During the February 23 polls, soldiers invaded the state and engaged in unrestrained harassment of PDP supporters, resulting in the killing of over 30 innocent citizens.

Read also: Politicians plotting to turn Niger Delta to war zone, IYC raises the alarm

“The PDP invites Nigerians and the international community to note the development in the South-South as well as how the Presidency and the APC are provoking the people of the region and pushing them to the precipice.

“The tension in the Niger Delta has been dangerously stretched and there is a limit to what the people can stomach in the face of such aggressions without resort to self-help.

“Moreover, the Niger Delta region remains a stronghold of the PDP and no amount of intimation and assault by the APC can change this reality.

“Our party therefore demands the immediate release of every PDP member arrested by the military as well as instant stoppage of military aggression in the region ahead of the elections. Any delay in cessation of this aggression by the APC and the military will destroy the precarious peace in the region and spell doom for our nation.”

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