Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not having it good at the moment with the President Mahmmadu Buhari-led administration.
After what seems long months of endurance, the party cried out on Thursday through various layers of its leadership. One thin thread that ran through their messages, was the complaint of assault on its leaders, while specifically accusing President Muhammadu Buhari’s government of using security men to hound its members.
The party challenged the Federal Government to prove that its anti-corruption campaign is not targeted at opposition party stalwarts, by allowing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) invite and investigate his All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains: Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Rotimi Amaechi, amongst others.
PDP’s Acting National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, spoke while receiving 49 Senators who visited his office.
The visitors raised the alarm that operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) were behaving as if they had been deployed to go after its members, saying that the method and approach of men of the secret police smack of political meddlesomeness and partisanship.
The accusations came amidst reports that the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) had also written to President Muhammadu Buhari over series of complaints of misdemeanor by agents of the DSS and the EFCC, urging him to call them to order.
The troubled PDP leaders have been particular that the onslaught against its members may have been designed to give further advantage to the ruling APC, because activities of the state security apparatus were felt more in states controlled by the PDP.
The senators made particular reference to situations in three states- Abia, Rivers and Akwa Ibom, which they stated the DSS is working to hijack for the APC after losing them through the ballot box.
The opposition federal legislators also decried what they perceive as selective probe of PDP loyalists by the anti-graft agencies.
Addressing a press conference earlier at the National Assembly on Thursday, the caucus’ minority leader and former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to quickly intervene and stop the antics of the DSS.
He lamented that the DSS has been going after officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and coercing them to manufacture false documents that would be used to favour the APC in the matters against PDP members at the election tribunals.
He accused the DSS of becoming a danger to the nation’s hard-won democracy, a reason why President Muhammadu Buhari and other well-meaning Nigerians must intervene to ensure that the partisan actions are stopped.
On his part, Governor Fayose had in a statement through his spokesman, Lere Olayinka, taken a swipe at the Federal Government’s anti-corruption stance, describing it as a diversionary tactic to hoodwink the public into overlooking the seeming failure of the government to deliver on its electoral promises.
While challenging President Muhammadu Buhari to start the anti-corruption fight from his party, Governor Fayose stated Nigerians know those who sponsored his presidential election and are waiting for him to reveal their sources of income.
“Some of those who sponsored the President’s election have not done any other jobs apart from holding public offices. Yet, they provided private jets and funds with which the President campaigned across the length and breadth of Nigeria. He should let Nigerians know where they got money to buy private jets and the several billions of naira spent on his election.
“Mr President and his men should know that these planned efforts to brand PDP as a party of corrupt people and suppress the giant strides of the Jonathan administration won’t work because Nigerians know that APC is peopled with more corrupt people and the President must treat the issue of corruption without looking at political parties.
“No one sits with corruption to fight corruption because as it is today, President Muhammadu Buhari is sitting among corrupt people and he must first extricate himself from the comity of corruption that he is before his anti-corruption stance can be accorded respect.”
Several PDP former governors and top officials in the government of ex-President Jonathan have been quizzed by the EFCC. Former Governor Sule Lamido and his two sons had been charged on alleged cases of official corruption and money laundering and even spent days in prison cells as they were initially denied bail.
The party’s concerns, however, include that no member of the ruling APC is known to be under watch by the anti-graft agency.
Akpabio said: “The PDP caucus is worried, alarmed, and shocked by recent developments in our polity where the DSS is now involved in electoral matters. A situation where officials of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Rivers State, Akwa Ibom and Abia States – (all PDP states) are daily being arrested, detained and questioned on politically-motivated corruption allegations, is worrisome and spells doom for our democracy unless the trend is reversed.
“No democracy survives without a viable opposition in any part of the world. INEC is supposed to be an independent commission and its officials ought to be shielded from partisanship”, Akpabio stated.
He pointed out that, “the arrest of electoral officials in states APC did not win elections in APC-led Federal Government is a source of worry to this caucus and indeed all lovers of democracy worldwide. There is no provision in our laws that allow the DSS to meddle in a partisan manner in the political electoral process.
“The elections in Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Abia States (all PDP states) were held and adjudged successful and credible by Professor Attahiru Jega, the erstwhile Chairman of INEC. Equally, dissatisfied and aggrieved parties have gone to courts in conformity with our laws to seek redress.
“The intrusion by the DSS in arresting, coercing, intimidating, and harassing INEC officials in a democracy is most condemnable. Though these arrests, coercion, detention, and harassment are happening in PDP-controlled states, we would still have condemned these actions if they had taken place in APC-controlled states since these actions are strange to democratic ethics and practices all over the world”, Akpabio stated.
While expressing further worries that the attention of DSS is being diverted as its activities have been compromised, Akpabio stated that, “At this period of renewed onslaught by terrorists/Boko Haram in the North Eastern part of our dear Nation, we expect security agencies to deploy their arsenals and manpower towards recovering lost territories and ensuring the safety and security of lives and properties of all Nigerians”.
“We condemn these arrests, describe them as illegal, a total misplacement of priority, a waste of tax payers’ money in an economically challenging time, and a serious threat to democracy.
“Should the DSS succeed in coercing electoral officials of INEC to recant their signatures to documents and therefrom obtain undeserved victories in tribunals for APC – what image would have been created for Nigeria’s democracy?
“We call on the president to intervene and refrain the DSS from partisanship”, he also stated.
As stated by the ex-governor of Akwa Ibom State, the PDP has unearthed evidence that INEC officials are being arrested and forced to produce falsified documents to help the cases of APC candidates before the election tribunals.
“This is abominable and unacceptable”, he said, calling on the president and all well-meaning Nigerians to “intervene to preserve the independence of the tribunal and that of INEC”.
He further directed, “The DSS must refocus its energy towards its primary role of preserving peace, protecting lives, ensuring internal security and order, preventing mutiny or violent and unconstitutional takeover of government.
“In the past, many Nigerians were able to sleep with their eyes closed because of the noble role played by the DSS. This same DSS helped in wiping out kidnapping in South-East, South-South and other parts of Nigeria in collaboration with other security services. Their efforts in intelligence gathering to assist in the war against insurgency are applauded by all Nigerians.
“The DSS cannot and should not now become a political tool to win cases for APC candidates in courts and tribunals.
“We plead with Mr President to stop this operation capture Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Abia States by all means by certain APC schemes. Mr President, please restore confidence in the polity by putting an end to all witch-hunt, illegal arrests, detention and harassment”.