Date Published: 03/14/11

Lagos ACN decries PDP's continued muzzling of opposition

In the heat of preparations for the forth coming general election, the Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria has warned the police against the continued use of the security agencies to intimidate and muzzle opposition parties all over the country. The party says that by its continued intimidation and harassment of members of the opposition parties in various parts of the country, the PDP is sowing the seeds of widespread resistance that will certainly lead to unsavory public reactions.

In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Joe Igbokwe, the party says it is disheartening that a party that has been in power for twelve unprecedented years and with massive resources at its disposal still believes that its continued stay in power would be determined by cheeky antics and crude deployment of force to beat down the rampaging anger of Nigerians against their continued stay. The party urges the PDP to go to Nigerians it has dehumanized in twelve years of unprecedented wreckage of the country rather than seeking out vile means to stop opposition parties.

“We know we will certainly come to these terrible times, when the PDP, having woefully failed Nigerians these twelve years, will employ vile and crude ways to muzzle its way to power again. We know that the PDP, with nothing to show for its prodigal stay on power, would resort to such unorthodox means to stop the wildfire, which the mass endorsement of opposition parties in the run up to the April election, has become. We know that the PDP believes so much in such crude and violent means to survive rather than the freely given endorsement of the people.

“The nation’s airwave is suffused with reports of the PDP using security agencies to deny opposition parties access to public places for purpose of campaigns, arrest, detain and intimidate members of the opposition parties in several states and employ open violence against members of the opposition in several states as a way of frightening them away from the ensuing contest. These are dangerous developments that are not in consonant with democracy, which is anchored on free speech

“We however note that the PDP is so impervious to the mood of the moment and the tide of the time, which disavows the continuation of a party that has continually demeaned the lives of Nigerians in twelve years of ceaseless oil windfall. PDP, which lives and survives on stealing the electoral mandates of Nigerians are faced with possible extinction, given its abysmal score card in power so it believes the best way to stay in power is to brow beat others so as to create a situation that will allow them to steal the coming election because PDP knows that by its woeful score card, it has lost the sympathy and support of mal-administered Nigerians.

“If the PDP needs counseling, we will not hesitate to let them know that elections are based on freedom of opinion, usually expressed through free campaigns where a party presents its score cards to the people for possible decision, if they were in power. We want to let the PDP know that no amount of strong arms tactics will stop an idea whose time has come so the earlier they warm up to the impending defeat that awaits them next month.

“We know the present desperate actions of the rank and file of PDP members are borne out of the realization that Nigerians are fed up with the party and cannot wait to throw them out of power in April. We see their resort to naked force and intimidation as a product of a frustrated hope that it would easily steal the coming election and the intimidating profile of the opposition parties, which swells as the PDP shrinks.

“We want to finally let the PDP know that it would amount to self deceit for it to think that Nigerians will continue pandering to its luscious appetite to loot Nigeria’s resources while sentencing Nigerians to endless penury, disease and want. We advise them to prepare for a crushing defeat and not go about intimidating and persecuting opposition parties and politicians.”