Gen. Tukur Buratai, over the deployment of soldiers for elections,
saying such is already triggering an uncontrolled crime against humanity
in our nation.
Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesman of the PDP said “this usurpation of the
responsibility of the police and involvement of soldiers in the February
23 Presidential and National Assembly elections, led to the gruesome
killing of over 30 innocent Nigerians in the Niger Delta as well as
arbitrary arrest and detention of opposition figures, resulting in
escalated insecurity in region.
“The deployment of soldiers for the 2019 general elections, despite the
extant ruling of the Supreme Court against such, is part of the grand
plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to use the military to
suppress opposition, instill fear in the citizenry and forcefully rig
the elections.
“Gen. Buratai’s outburst on Wednesday, that the Army will be ‘tough’ in
its unconstitutional involvement in the conduct of elections,
particularly in the Niger Delta, the South East and the North Central,
appears to be a license to trigger-happy security agents to re-enact or
even scale up their February 23 aggression against PDP figures in the
March 9 governorship and State Assembly elections.
“The PDP invites Nigerians to note that following Gen. Buratai’s
statement on Wednesday, soldiers last night commenced a targeted
manhandling and mass arrest of PDP leaders in Delta, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom
and Bayelsa states.
“In Rivers state, PDP leaders are being tracked down, arrested and taken
to unknown destinations. The State Commissioner of Education, Dr. Tam
Gogo Jaja, who was picked up by soldiers attached to the Director
General of the Buhari Campaign Organization and Minister of
Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, is still being held in an unknown
facility.
“Furthermore, compromised security agents have been hounding, arresting
and detaining PDP figures in the North Central states of Kogi, Benue,
Kwara and Plateau states ahead of the March 9 elections.
“The PDP laments that the APC is pitching the military against Nigerians
not minding the collateral damage that usually occurs whenever soldiers
clash with civilians.
“This is particularly given the fact that Nigerians in all PDP
strongholds, spread across our country, are resolute in their resistance
of any force that seeks to subvert their will at the March 9 elections.
“Nigerians should call on Gen. Buratai to redirect his officers and men
from participating in the March 9 election so as to avert any breakdown
of law and order in any part of our country before, during and after the
March 9 elections.