…Says ‘Buhari’s desperation for self
succession threat to national unity’
Opposition party only afraid of imminent defeat – Keyamo
The Peoples Democratic Party has said that the arrest of the lawmaker representing Kogi West in the upper chamber of the National Assembly, Senator Dino Melaye, will not affect his chances of winning the February 16, 2019 election.
The party has also assured its supporters that despite humiliation and harrasment of its leaders and members by the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress, through security and various government agencies, the party will not succumb to intimidation.
The PDP specifically said it was sure that despite all antics of the ruling party to arrest and detain Melaye, he would win the February 16 senatorial election and return to the Senate.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Point in Abuja, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, who is also the Media Director of the PDP Campaign Organisation, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, said even if Melaye was imprisoned before and during the election, he would still win because the people of Kogi West had decided on that before now.
He said, “Nobody in Nigeria is unaware that we are being harassed, intimidated and being trailed as opposition party by the ruling party through various agencies of government. But we will remain resolute because the people are with us. Nigerians believe in PDP and so we will win the elections this year.
“As for Melaye, we will return him to the Senate. You know I am from Kogi State. The people of Kogi West are determined and resolute about returning Melaye to the Senate and no threat, harassment or intimidation can change the People’s decision. Even if they put him in prison, he is going to win the election. The ruling party and the security agencies can do anything within their power, but they cannot prevent Melaye’s re-election come February 16,” Ologbondiyan said.
He said this just as a lawyer and Kogi State indigene, Mr. Abdullahi Ahmed, also called on the ruling party and the Inspector General of Police to desist from what he described as witch haunting of leaders of the opposition.
Ahmed said many lawyers were on queue to defend Melaye’s recent ordeal, noting that the IGP would not get anywhere with the case.
“They are demonstrating the fact that they are desperate. This case, they said, happened in July. Why all the drama now? Many of them use thugs. We all have to now start digging up facts and implicating the President’s supporters. This is Nigeria, and I assure you, Buhari, the IGP and APC will not get anywhere with this. Dino is returning to the Senate as our senator,” he said.
‘BUHARI’S DESPERATION FOR SELF SUCCESSION THREAT TO NATIONAL UNITY’
Meanwhile, the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation has alerted the National Peace Committee, the United Nations and all world leaders to save Nigeria from imminent collapse by immediately calling President Muhammadu Buhari to order.
PPCO, at a press conference in Abuja on Sunday, addressed by its Media Director, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said, “If we must have peaceful, free, fair and credible general elections in February, President Buhari must be called to order. We want the whole world to know that Nigeria is in perilous times. President Muhammadu Buhari’s desperation for self-succession has become the major threat to our national unity, stability and peaceful electoral process.
“Having realised that Nigerians are rallying behind our candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as their next President, the Buhari Presidency is now seeking ways to enmesh the electoral process in crisis. The Buhari Presidency has been overheating the polity with its unending manipulations of INEC, muzzling of free speech and escalated clampdown on opposition and Civil Society Organisations and we insist that such must stop if we must have a peaceful election.”
The PPCO insists that there is no way peace can be guaranteed without a free and fair election, saying, “Nigerians are livid with anger over the foisting of Mrs. Amina Zakari, President Buhari’s relation, on us, to head the collation of Presidential election results. President Buhari’s insistence on having his relation in charge of collation of Presidential election results is completely provocative, a direct affront to the sensibilities of Nigerians and express invitation to crisis of epic proportion, which is capable of truncating the entire electoral process and derailing our hard-earned democracy.
“The world is aware that majority of Nigerians have rejected Mrs. Amina Zakari. Over 90 per cent of the political parties in the election, as well as major political and socio-cultural groups across the country have also called for her resignation from INEC, yet President Buhari is insisting on her stay in the commission. Our party is aware of plots by the Buhari Presidency to use Amina Zakari, who has been mentioned as part of those involved in the rigging of the 2018 governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states, to plunge the 2019 general elections into controversies, truncate the flow of results and even render elections in some critical states inconclusive, to pave the way for allocation of fictitious votes to President Buhari and the APC.”
According to the spokesman, the organisation wants the National Peace Committee and the entire world to know that as long as Amina Zakari is in INEC, a peaceful election is not guaranteed because she has the mandate to abuse the process and this will not be accepted by Nigerians.
“The PPCO therefore calls on the National Peace Committee to immediately speak out on the impropriety of having Amina Zakari in INEC as well as insist on her removal so that we can have a credible and peaceful Presidential election,” the PDP said, adding that “the PPCO alerts the entire world and particularly the Chief Justice of Nigeria of the 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. 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.”
It said, “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.
“The PPCO recalls that Senator Dino Melaye had earlier alerted of plots by the Police to arrest and poison him. His present ordeal as well as that 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.
“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 the way for President Buhari’s self-succession.
“This is a clear attempt to return our nation to the nightmares of 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.
“However, the PPCO wants the Buhari Presidency to note that it is preposterous for anybody, no matter how highly placed, to think that our great party, the PDP and our Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who enjoys the support of overwhelming majority of Nigerians, can be subdued out of the political space in our country.
“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.”
PDP only afraid of imminent defeat – Keyamo
But the Buhari Campaign Organisation has described the call by the PDP as a case of crying wolf where none exists, saying that “ the PDP is only afraid of imminent defeat and nobody should take them serious.”
Speaking with The Point in Abuja on Sunday, spokesman of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN), said the PDP, through its utterances, was the one trying to truncate democracy.
“They are just crying wolf where there’s none,” he maintained.
