By Daniel Kanu
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday accused President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of plotting to subvert the country’s democracy.
The leading opposition party made this allegation in a press conference addressed by its national publicity secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan.
The party said APC and its presidential candidate were not serious with campaigns ahead of the presidential election on February 16, because it had allegedly perfected plans to manipulate the electoral process but urged Nigerians to resist the attempt.
The party said any vote for the APC in the forthcoming elections was tantamount to an “endorsement of fascism” insisting that “allowing President Buhari another tenure will be a pathway to full totalitarianism, where citizens would be treated as vassals in a conquered territory.”
Below is the full press statement:
Fascism: Get Ready To Defend Your Country, PDP Charges Nigerians
Gentlemen of the press, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today, makes
a clarion call to all Nigerians to brace up for the February 16, 2019
Presidential election as the only way to defend and save our nation from
the fascism being plotted by the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Nigerians are already aware that the APC and the Buhari Presidency are
not serious with campaigns ahead of the Presidential elections. They
know that the APC and its candidate, President Buhari are seeking ways
to enmesh the election in crisis, stalemate the electoral process and
pave the way for rigging and actualization of plots to perpetuate
President Buhari in office.
With the prevailing state of our polity; the flagrant violation of our
constitution, continuous attacks on institutions of democracy and
principle of separation of powers, consistent abuse of human rights,
erosion of personal freedom, uninhibited extra-judicial killings,
illegal detention, attack on peaceful protesters, clampdown on the media
and vocal members of the Civil Society, as well as the unleashing of
brutality on innocent citizens, that have characterized the Buhari
Presidency; it is manifestly clear that our nation is on a rapid descent
into fascism, which we must all resist with our votes.
The PPCO urges all compatriots to note that any vote for APC is an
endorsement of fascism and allowing President Buhari another tenure will
be a pathway to full totalitarianism, where citizens would be treated as
vassals in a conquered territory.
Today, our freedom and personal liberty as a people are under threat.
Our rights as constitutionally guaranteed as citizens are about to be
completely taken away. Our last lines of defence as a free people; our
legislature and our judiciary are also under siege.
We are all witnesses to the unrelenting assault on the institution of
the judiciary and the courts by the Buhari Presidency and the APC. This
siege on the Judiciary has now come to a climax with the widely
condemned attempt by the Buhari Presidency and the APC to forcefully
remove the Chief Justice of the Nigeria, (CJN) Justice Walter Onnoghen.
In spite of widespread condemnation, President Buhari and the APC have
refused to show remorse. If anything, they have carried on as if
Nigerians are already a conquered people.
This ignoble act is with the view to replace Justice Onnoghen with a
pliable CJN that will execute the plot to annex the court and use them
to curtail freedom of expression and to silence opposition members as
well as perceived opponents of the Buhari administration ahead of the
February election.
Such attempt at annexations is to subject judicial officers under the
control of the Attorney General to determine and even write judgments on
political and human rights cases and cover atrocities of anti-democratic
forces.
The world can recall how the Buhari Presidency, in a widely condemned
‘sting operation’ in 2016, used the Directorate of State Services (DSS)
to hound and round up sitting Supreme Court and High Court judges in
Nigeria.
Since that ‘sting operation’, our judiciary Nigeria has remained under
siege with the agents of the Buhari Presidency and the APC directly
interfering in cases and trying to direct the rulings of courts.
Nigerians and the world can recall also how agents of the Buhari
Presidency and the APC, last year, besieged and attempted to forcefully
remove the elected leadership of the National Assembly; the symbol of
our democracy.
Nigerians will also recall how the APC and the Buhari Presidency used
apparatus of state powers to seal the legislative complex, unleashed
thugs to invade the Senate chamber, disrupted legislative proceedings
and forcefully carted away the mace, the emblem of the sovereignty and
authority of the people.
In our slide into fascism, Nigerians are daily falling victims of
extreme torture, illegal detention, extra-judicial and arbitrary
killings, forceful crackdown on peaceful protesters and mass burial by
unrestrained agents of the state, as detailed in the 2017/2018 Amnesty
International (AI) Human Rights Report.
In the same vein, there have been concerted efforts by the government to
gag the media leading to the manhandling of journalists and invasion of
media houses over reports considered unfavorable to government.
Furthermore, Nigerians can recall how the Buhari Presidency attempted to
inject crisis into the electoral process with the delay in the
presentation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
election budget and the refusal by President Buhari to sign the
amendments to the Electoral Act which eliminates openings for rigging.
This is in addition to the widely condemned foisting of Mrs. Amina
Zakari, President Buhari’s relation by marriage, as head of the
collation of results of the Presidential poll as well as plot to use the
Police as suppressive tool to intimidate voters and assist APC agents to
unleash violence and manipulate the process, for which President Buhari
is bent on retaining the overtly partisan Inspector General of Police,
Ibrahim Idris even when his tenure had expired.
This administration has turned out to be the most vicious in the history
of our nation. Nigerians and the world must therefore rise in
condemnation of this dangerous drift towards, Hitler’s Germany,
Mussolini’s Italy, Idi Amin’s Uganda, Charles Taylor’s Liberia and Than
Shwe’s Burma.
Perhaps, President Buhari has forgotten that Nigeria is a democratic
state, and needs to be reminded that as a people, we have chosen
democracy as a form of government with the personal freedom, liberty and
rule of law that it guarantees. Nigerians will never accept any kind of
draconian rule and dictatorial tendencies.
We therefore charge all Nigerians; all victims of injustice and
brutality of the Buhari Presidency; all victims of the mindless killings
encouraged by the insensitivity of the Buhari Presidency; all those
impoverished by the corruption and incompetence of the Buhari
administration and all lovers of democracy in Nigeria to get ready to
defend our nation and save her from fascism by voting out President
Buhari on February 16, 2019.
The February Presidential election is therefore a referendum for our
freedom. We make a clarion call on Nigerians to vote in defence of our
nation. We must vote in defence of our rights and lives as free
citizens; we must vote in defence of rule of law and resistance of
repressive forces and political bandits seeking to foist a fascist
regime on our nation.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
Director, Media & Publicity
PDP Presidential Campaign Organization