The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Saturday accused the Federal Government of planning to clamp down on opposition leaders in the days ahead.
Briefing the media at the party’s secretariat in Abuja, spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said politicians with dissenting views to President Muhammadu Buhari’s are the main targets.
He said: “The APC and its Federal Government have commenced a vicious and direct clampdown of major opposition leaders, perceived political opponents and individuals with interests and views that are divergent to those of their presidential aspirant, perhaps, candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, ahead of the 2019 general elections.”
According to him, the clampdown is tailored to silence opposition as well as those who refused to join or support the APC in its “unlawful design” to emasculate other political parties, undermine the laws and electoral system, foist a one-party state and perpetuate its incompetent, dysfunctional and anti-people rule on the nation.
Ologbondiyan added that the national chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, has been receiving threats since the PDP filed petitions to the United Nations and the Commonwealth, detailing instances of right violations against the government.
The party had few weeks ago alerted the two international bodies about alleged human rights abuse, mass killings, extra-judicial executions, persecution of opposition and unabated constitutional violations by the administration.
Ologbondiyan added: “The PDP is aware of clandestine plots against key opposition leaders, particularly, members of the PDP National Working Committee, some dissenting members of the APC, members of the civil society, opinion leaders, journalists and bloggers, who refuse to succumb to intimidation and that such persons have already been listed and currently being trailed by agents of the state.
“This has become manifest in the plot to rope members of nPDP, especially those in the National Assembly, into gun-running and murder charges just because they came out to voice their opposition to the APC government’s constitutional violations and executive brigandage in the running of our nation’s affairs.
“The PDP wants Nigerians and the international community to know those to hold responsible should PDP leaders, as well as other members of the opposition start falling victims of untoward situations like assassinations, unexplained accidents, inexplicable armed robbery attacks, high profile abduction and sudden disappearances.
“These include wanton arrest, manhandling and detention of opposition leaders on trumped-up charges, as well as illegal invasion of their homes and businesses by agents of the state.
“Apart from allegations of corruption, there are also plots to clamp down and detain opposition leaders for charges bordering on treason. The PDP is also aware that some compromised judicial officers have been enlisted to give convictions and jail members of opposition as well as dissenting voices, on flimsy grounds.
“Moreover, we know that the APC is fixated with the PDP because of the renewed popularity of our party among Nigerians, as the inevitable vehicle to return power to the people, restore democracy, national cohesion and safeguard our territorial integrity come 2019.”