Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded the immediate release of some of its chieftains arrested and detained by the police at the weekend.
Specifically, the PDP demanded the unconditional release of its head of security in Dekina local government, Mr Edeh Abutu who the party claimed was abducted by agents of Governor Yahaya Bello and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
At media briefing in Abuja on Sunday, the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, described the gun running charges leveled against Abutu as trumped.
The party spokesman also said Abutu had been taken to an unknown destination where he and others were being tortured.
Ologbondiyan said: โNigerians will recall that last Thursday, October 31, 2019, the PDP alerted of the heinous plots by the APC and outgoing Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state to clampdown on key leaders in the state as well as unleash violence on the people, for their decision not to vote Yahaya Bello back to office.
โWe have called you today to notify Nigerians that the APC has commence the clampdown and punishment of innocent citizens of Kogi state, having realized that the people are not ready to change their resolve to kick out the incompetent, corrupt and disdainful Bello administration.
โThe APC, out of desperation, has started framing and arresting innocent Nigerians, harassing and victimizing women and youths, blocking peoplesโ means of livelihood and issuing threats on the citizenry, all in the failed bid to inject crisis, derail the electoral process and manipulate the outcome of the polls.
โOnly yesterday, the APC, using, some hoodlums and compromised security agents, led by Belloโs illegitimate deputy governor, Edward Onoja, arrested the PDP head of security in Dekina Local Government, Mr. Edeh Abutu, over trumped up charges of possession of firearm.
โIt is instructive to state that Abutu had been threatened with arrest and frame-up, several times, by the APC; attacked and harassed on numerous occasions before he was finally framed and abducted by the APC after he pulled a gargantuan crowd for our governorship campaign rally in Dekina.
โThe PDP has been made aware of how APC thugs invaded his area of residence, traumatized and harassed citizens with gun shots and abducted Mr. Abutu to an unknown destination, after which the illegal deputy governor turned himself into the spokesman of the police by rushing to falsely claim that he (Abutu) made some confessional statement of being in possession of firearms.
โInformation at our disposal shows that at the time the illegal deputy governor was publicizing his fabricated confessional statement, there was no such record with the Police in Dekina or the State Police Command.
โOur party has also been informed of how the abductors, coordinated by an APC Zonal Chairman, took their victims to the Governorโs Lodge in Dekina as well as how the illegal deputy governor has been mounting pressure on the Commissioner of Police to adopt his fabricated statement against their victimsโ.
The PDP further said it has been made aware of plots to frame-up more of its leaders with allegations of illegal possession of firearms, sponsoring of violence, training of thugs among others, as an attempt to intimidate the citizens as well as cover APCโs violence machination against the people of the state.
Ologbondiyan condemned what he described as desperate attempts by Governor Bello and the APC to suppress the people, inject crisis into the polity, unleash punishment on the people of Kogi state and derail the electoral process, seeing that they cannot win the November 16 election.
Continuing, he said: โThe PDP wants the APC and Governor Yahaya Bello to note that our party is aware of all their plans and that they cannot have their way.
โOur party cautions the APC and Yahaya Bello to note that they are pushing the people of Kogi state to the wall; that the forbearance of the people of Kogi State is being stretched to the threshold, that there is a limit to what they can bear and that they may soon no longer hesitate to unleash their indignation against forces of oppression.
โAlready, the continuous detention of Edeh Abutu is mounting agitation among the people, particularly the youth, and the situation is capable of causing a crisis of unimaginable proportion in the state.
โThe people of Kogi state have resolved that Yahaya Bello must go. Arresting, harassing and intimidating the citizens will not change anything. Rather it will increase the irreversible disaffection the people of Kogi state already have for the failed Governor Bello and his APC.
โMoreover, Yahaya Bello is surely leaving office in January 2020 after being handed an inevitable defeat on November 16.Anybody supporting him in suppressing the people may find himself sharing his badge of shame and public rejection as a failed leader.
โThe PDP therefore urges security agencies not to allow themselves to be entangled with the APC against the people as such will diminish the trust, respect and confidence that people have for themโ.
