… Says APC is turning region into war zone
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday decried the “mass arrest and detention of its leaders and members in South South states of Rivers,
Delta and Akwa-Ibom by the Nigerian military ahead of the March
9, 2019 governorship and state Assembly elections.”
The party accused the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) of turning the South South zone into a war zone, out of their desperation to suppress voters, manipulate the electoral process and forcefully take over control of the states.
A statement by its national publicity secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, which was made available to TheNiche said: “In Rivers State, leaders of the PDP are being hounded and forcefully picked up in a well-coordinated operation by military operatives attached to the Director General of Buhari’s Campaign Organization and Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.
The opposition party said it had received reports on ‘how soldiers led by one Major Mustapha Bello from Sokoto Division, under Amaechi’s directives, manhandled, arrested and took away the Rivers State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Tam Gogo Jaja to an unknown destination.”
“During the February 23 polls, soldiers, also under the directives of Rotimi Amaechi, invaded the state and engaged in unrestrained harassment
of PDP supporters, resulting in the killing of over 30 innocent citizens,” the party further alleged.
Inviting Nigerians and the international community to note the
development in the South South as well as how the Buhari Presidency and
the APC were provoking the people of the region and pushing them to the
precipice, PDP said, “The tension in the Niger Delta has been dangerously stretched and there is a limit to what the people can stomach in the face of such aggression without resort to self-help.
“Moreover, the Niger Delta region remains a stronghold of the PDP and no
amount of intimation and assault by the APC can change this reality.
“Our party therefore demands the immediate release of every PDP member
arrested by the military as well as instant stoppage of military
aggression in the region ahead of the elections. Any delay in cessation
of this aggression by the APC and the military will destroy the
precarious peace in the region and spell doom for our nation.”
