The opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, came down hard on the ruling<\/p>\n
All Progressive Congress, APC, over the handcuffing of Olisa Metuh while
\nappearing in court, describing it as an attempt to decimate opposition and
\nportray its members as common criminals.<\/p>\n
In a statement signed by its National Secretary, Prof. Adewale Oladipo,
\nPDP said the action is a clear indication that Nigeria is fast drifting
\ninto police state.<\/p>\n
The statement reads:
\n\u201cThis development which expectedly elicited widespread public outcry
\nclearly betrays an extra-judicial, top political witch-hunt policy of the
\nAPC, carefully designed to humiliate, embarrass and portray PDP leaders as
\ncommon criminals and set the stage to cow and decimate opposition and
\nperceived foes of the government\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question remains, if not to mortify, dehumanize and break our
\nNational Publicity Secretary, who has been very vocal against the APC
\nadministration, and of course to send a signal to others critical of the
\ngovernment, what else would have informed the decision to produce him in
\ncourt in handcuffs, even when his case does not border on security
\nthreat?\u201d<\/p>\n
Is this an attempt to sway the court and ambush the judicial process
\nagainst our National Publicity Secretary, all because of his stance
\nagainst observed ineptitude and dictatorial tendencies of this
\nadministration?<\/p>\n
The PDP invites all Nigerians and the international community to note the
\nemerging barefaced abuse of state power and violation of constitutional
\nprovisions regarding the arrest, detention and eventual arraignment of our
\nspokesperson.<\/p>\n
Nigerians by now, should be extremely scared that our country is fast
\ndrifting into a police state where being in opposition or holding views
\ndivergent to that of the government makes one a criminal and an enemy of
\nthe state.<\/p>\n
For now, the target of the on-going lopsided war against corruption is the
\nPDP and its leaders. All APC members, including those with known
\ncorruption issues are immune from investigation, arrest and prosecution.<\/p>\n
However, more worrisome is the fact that institutions of government,
\nespecially security and corrective agencies have now fallen victims of
\ndictatorial abuses. Our fear now is that in no time, ordinary citizens of
\nNigerians, who in the last 16 years have lived under the rule of law and
\nconstitutionally guaranteed personal liberty, would begin to suffer
\nbrutality and oppression.<\/p>\n
Under PDP administration, some Nigerians, including APC leader and former
\nGovernor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu were tried but never
\nhumiliated; now we see security operatives under this regime being used to
\ncrush and humiliate the opposition.<\/p>\n
Finally, while we study the bail conditions, we urge all PDP members to
\nremain calm, united, focused and continue to pray for the nation and her
\npeople. We also urge the media to remain on the side of justice, fairness
\nand rule of law and resist the pressure of being used as a tool to promote
\narbitrariness and abuse of process in the so-called fight against
\ncorruption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, came down hard on the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, over the handcuffing of Olisa Metuh while appearing in court, describing it as an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n