We Are Under Attack!
Gentlemen of the press,
We have called you up
this Sunday afternoon to address you and through you alert all Nigerians and
indeed the international community of a grievous development that constitutes a
major threat to our democracy and lives as individuals.
As we address you today,
our democracy is facing a serious danger. We are at the verge of a quick slide
into dictatorship and the personal freedom entrenched in the polity in the last
16 years by the PDP is about to be obliterated.
We wish to alert all
Nigerians and the international community that there is indeed a clear and
present danger of threat to the lives of key opposition leaders in Nigeria.
In the last few weeks,
key PDP members have become an endangered group for playing their opposition
role in providing constructive criticisms to the ruling party in their apparent
lack of capacity to get organized and form a government; their interference in
the activities of the National Assembly and the demand for the implementation
of their campaign promises to Nigerians.
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.
The leadership of the
PDP has been made aware of various threats to life and other forms of
intimidation and blackmail against Senator Ekweremadu from the APC.
As you may know, the
APC leaders have not hidden their bitterness and resentment towards Senator
Ekweremadu whose offense 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.
Since President
Muhammadu Buhari’s statement that Senator Ekweremadu’s election was
‘unacceptable’ to his party, the Deputy Senate President, who can only be
removed by the Senate has come under threats and intense pressure from APC leaders
to resign and allow a senator from the ruling party to take his position.
However, having failed
to get him to resign, the APC has now engaged in heinous plots to force him out
of office, a design, which totally negates the independence of the legislature
and the spirit and letters of the constitution of Nigeria.
Apparently to ensure
that the agenda is given an official stamp, 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
interferences, 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.
In line with the above
plot, the APC has been having secret meetings with some judges and lawyers to
procure injunctions to prevent Senator Ekweremadu from playing his role as the
Deputy Senate President.
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.
The PDP hereby states
and in very clear terms too 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.
We do hope that the era
of political assassination is not about to return to Nigeria and that our
nation will not descent into a draconian regime where a strike force is created
to hunt key opposition figures. In this wise, we call on our citizens to note
that the PDP 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.
This is in addition to
hiring some disgruntled PDP members, to use the guise of an ethnic solidarity
to create some disturbances, distractions and disruption of the smooth
operations of our party. The APC is indeed in the process of elevating
violence, ethnic and sectional interests once more in our democracy and we call
on patriotic Nigerians across the country to resist this dangerous design.
We are aware that
President 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 Senator Ike Ekweremadu, which is now being
misconstrued by some of his overzealous party members and security officials.
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.
In Nigeria, the
constitution empowers each chamber of the National Assembly to choose its
leadership without external interferences. Senators in their wisdom and in
exercise of that power, in line with the provisions of their Standing Rules
chose Senators Saraki and Ekweremadu to lead them and the constitution is clear
on the process for their removal from office.
The APC should not in
any way take our civility, decency and commitment to national peace and
stability for granted. They should rather be thankful to PDP senators, who in
their maturity and discipline stuck to the decision of our party to support
Senator Saraki and restrained themselves from using their majority status on
the day of Senate inauguration to take over the positions of the Senate
President and that of Deputy Senate President, while APC senators were busy
attending their party meeting at the International Conference Center (ICC).
APC leaders must
understand that no amount of threats, 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.
As a party that
sustained and nurtured democracy in the last 16 years, the PDP cannot fold its
hands and watch but will stand with all patriots in resisting this attempt to
transform our country from a democratic state where the freedom of citizens to
hold personal opinions and aspirations are guaranteed, to a nation where
despotism, fear, clamp down on opposition and of course the media will be the
order of the day.
Thank you
Chief Olisa Metuh
National Publicity
Secretary
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