Metuh, PDP Spokesman |
Nigeria Is On A Quick
Slide To Fascism, Official Terrorism, Says
PDP
As uncertainty over the way forward hug the polity, the opposition Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, has taken a swipe
at President Muhammadu Buhari for
reacting to the coup’d etat in Burkina Faso whilst his government engages in
brazen contravention of Nigeria’s constitution, a development that is clearly
derailing the Country from the path of order, democracy and constitutionalism.
President Muhammadu Buhari is guilty of “deliberate infractions and crass abuse of
power, and “nation is on a quick slide
into fascism and official terrorism”.Says the PDP, in a statement by its
National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh.
The opposition party maintains that the President Buhari-led regime has exhibited
trappings of despotism, including “ruling without a constitutional component of
a cabinet, persistent abuse of power, undermining of democratic institutions,
invasion of state government and personal houses, injecting confusion into the
judiciary and hounding of individuals perceived to be against its interests”.
The party further expressed worry over the “relentless
onslaught against democratic institutions, especially the growing tension
trailing the quest to annex the National Assembly; for which the Presidency had
since vowed not to recognize the current Senate leadership, in total disdain to
the independence of the legislature and the principle of separation of powers”.
It further described as a mockery of reasoning, for
President Buhari to condemn the recent coup in Burkina Faso whilst his
government continues to violate the provisions of the constitution of his own
country.
“Ordinarily, the intra-party squabbles within the APC,
regarding leadership positions in the Senate is not necessarily our concern.
Also, we are not interested in whether Senate President Bukola Saraki ran for
the APC Presidential ticket against President Muhammadu Buhari; or whether he
ran for the Senate Presidency against the advice of the President and his
party. Our concerns here are the prevailing executive intolerance, the
undermining of the institution of the National Assembly and the overall threat
to the survival of our democracy.
“Whereas the PDP totally supports the fight against
corruption, while reposing confidence in the judiciary to protect and preserve
its sanctity, we note with grave concern, the politically induced controversies
within the judiciary, as a result of the part being played by agents of the
executive, especially the question of due process with respect to the roles
statutorily vested on the person of an Attorney-General, who is yet to be
appointed, regarding proceedings in the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
“We note this dangerous trend because the Presidency and the
APC have not hidden their aversion to the election of Senators Bukola Saraki
and Ike Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy Senate President
respectively, even as the fact of various moves to oust them from office,
including the recent unsubstantiated allegations of forgery and harassments by
the federal controlled security agencies are in the public domain.
“We call on Nigerians to be aware that the fixation on the
leadership of the National Assembly is part of a major step towards the
appropriation of the federal legislature, so as to undermine its statutory role
of checks and balances and set the stage for dictatorship in the land.
“Part of this script is to commence a major onslaught
against federal lawmakers perceived to hold divergent views to those of the
Presidency, irrespective of party affiliations, a situation that would ensure a
subdued legislature.
“Also, similar machineries have been activated for possible
forceful takeover of PDP states, a plot which played out in the recent act of
terrorism against democracy, in the invasion of Akwa-Ibom state government
house by the Department of State Services (DSS), under the direct instructions
from the Presidency.
“We also recall July reprehensible invasion and sealing of
Rivers local councils by the Police, who also barred members of caretaker
committees that were duly appointed by the state government to take charge of
the councils.
“The erosion of personal freedom of citizen also came to
public glare in the invasion of the home of the former National Security
Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki, against constitutionally guaranteed
fundamental rights and the rule of law.
“Furthermore, Nigerians are witness to the undue
interferences of the Department of State Services in the activities of election
tribunals in PDP controlled states of Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Delta, Abia, Taraba
and others where electoral officers are being harassed, intimidated and
detained, ostensibly to influence judgments against the PDP.
“We recall the show of intolerance in the venom and
disparagement with which the APC-led administration in August, attacked our
highly revered national leaders in the National Peace Committee, which has as
members, former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto,
His Eminence, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, respected clerics; Archbishop John
Onaiyekan and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kuka, retired justices of superior records,
as well as other highly respected patriotic Nigerians, for daring to counsel
Buhari’s government on some observed undemocratic tendencies and processes.
“It is hence only
appropriate that the President is called upon to focus on restoring proper
democracy in Nigeria and end this drift towards dictatorship under the “new
Sheriff’, an ominous undemocratic nomenclature introduced into our political
space by the Presidency.
“We invite the international community and the civil society
to note that our nation is facing a defining moment for the survival of
democracy. Nigeria has come to a point where citizens, irrespective of
political affiliations, can no longer freely express their views. We have fast
descended from an environment of personal freedom and rule of law to an
environment of muffled voices and suppression.
“Whereas we remain dedicated to our commitment in providing
a robust and credible opposition, constructively offering alternatives to
policies and programmes of the Federal Government, we restate in the strongest
possible terms, that we shall not be cowed to abdicate our irrevocable
resolution to defend our democracy, while resisting actions inimical to the
stability and unity of our dear nation.
PDP Is The official
‘Poster Boy’ For Corruption In Nigeria – APC
Mohammed, APC Spokesman |
”The Press Statement by the PDP is nothing but a
thinly-veiled frontal assault on the relentless efforts of the Buhari
Administration’s to clean the Augean Stable of the last PDP Federal
Government,” the party said in a statement issued in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai
Mohammed
”With its statement that is nothing but an unabashed support
for impunity and corruption, as well as its major actors, the PDP has now
confirmed itself as the official ‘poster boy’ for corruption in Nigeria,” it
said.
APC said the long-winding sophistry about the rule of law,
democracy and personal freedoms is aimed at couching the PDP’s abhorrence and
disdain for the fight against corruption in democratic cliches, especially now
that the battle is gradually hitting the PDP where it hurts.
The party said for the PDP’s National Publicity Secretary
himself, the persistent onslaught against the Buhari Administration is neither
altruistic nor informed by any belief in higher values, ”because the
allegations of corruption hanging on his own neck, from within his own party,
is a clear indication that he is mortally afraid that the wind will soon blow
hard enough to expose the fowl’s rump”.
”Neither the PDP as a party nor its spokesman have the moral
authority to condemn anyone, least of all a President that is working hard to
rescue Nigeria from the abyss to which it has been plunged by the former ruling
party.
”For the PDP to brush aside the latest revelation that a
government it sired could not account for $700 million from the Sovereign
Wealth Fund (SWF), or the fact that the party could not account for billions of
Naira in its own campaign funds, and then launch a frontal attack against a
reformist government, is the height of shamelessness.
”For the ethically-challenged spokesman of the same
morally-deficient party to continue to spew trash under the guise of opposition
politics is totally provocative and absolutely unacceptable. Worse still, the
lack of focus in the labyrinthine statements being issued by the opposition party
has confirmed the prescience of the APC’s offer to the PDP’s spokesman to take
a crash course in how to speak for the opposition,” it said.
0 Comments