Less than two weeks to the election, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
has raised the alarm on the persistent use of the Police by the All
Progressives Congress (APC) to intimidate, unlawfully arrest , detain
and torture its members.
The PDP, in a statement issued yesterday by its Publicity Secretary, Mr
Chris Nehikhare, called the attention of the Civil Society Organizations
in Nigeria, the international community, religious organizations,
traditional rulers, election monitoring committees and all lovers of
democracy to the worrisome development.
According to Nehikhare, the tactic of the APC is to break the spirits of
its members or to keep them out of circulation until after the
election.
“Governor Adams Oshiomhole has instructed the Police to launch a large
scale unwarranted arrest and detention of our vibrant youths across the
three senatorial districts on the prompting of APC members who have
turned to “pointers” for the police, and acting a script.
“In Edo South, many of our youths have had to be creative to evade this
type of Gestapo operations. In some cases, their parents are arrested
in their stead and made to pay huge sums of money as bail!
“It is interesting to note that the state governor and leader of the APC
in Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was quoted in the media as
threatening that members of our party should prepare for more arrests
and prosecution.
“While we take this as the desperate stand of the captain of a sinking
ship, we want to reassure our dedicated and determined members and
teeming supporters that we stand with them in the dark moments of their
persecution in the hands of the Police who have obviously become
partisan and are being used in an attempt to frustrate an idea which
time has come, which is the resolve of Edo people to “change the change”
that has brought unimaginable hardship, humiliation, frustration and
despondency upon the land.”
By Ogodogun Oghenekevwe
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