As the preparations for the 2019 general elections hot up, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Prince Uche Secondus on Monday came hard on the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu saying that the country could explode any moment if he continued in his impunity.
In a statement made available to news men Abuja last night by his Media Adviser, Mr Ike Abonyi, Secondus lamented that “the country is in a keg of a gunpowder at the moment as a result of Magun’s hatchet job for the ruling government and I warn you to get away from this illegitimate job of using instruments of state to harass and intimidate opponents”
Prince Secondus alleged that the Federal Government and the ruling party had listed critical players in opposition including himself, the PDP Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, his Vice Peter Obi, the Senate President Bukola Saraki, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara and other top party leaders and their associates for arrest on frame-up crimes.
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He said that the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, Ibrahim Magu had made himself a willing tool to carry out the APC script on how to cage and crush the PDP.
Prince Secondus alleged that available intelligence showed that the former Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu and former Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio “are presiding over clandestine meetings and developing strategies for the APC which is aimed at freezing critical leaders of the opposition.”
He said that aside arrest and detention of opposition leaders, their family members and business associates have been lined up for intimidation and harassment including freezing their business interests and their bank accounts.
He described as an afterthought fabrication, the EFCC denial that the son of the PDP Presidential Candidate was not the target in the raid of an apartment housing him in Abuja insisting that the game plan privy to the party was clear on who was the ultimate target.
Prince Secondus reminded Nigerians that these acts of impunity were in continuation of the embarrassment they caused Atiku on November 11, this year when he was thoroughly searched at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport by operatives of the state on his return from overseas on November 11, 2018.
According to him, “after that embarrassment and harassment which was aimed at intimidating the candidate and nothing incriminating was found on him, no apology was extended to him as a former number two citizen
“They followed it up with the freezing of the Bank account of our Vice Presidential Candidate as well as that of his friends and family members as part of a large scheme to keep the party distracted from its focus of regaining power in 2019
“According to their script, the PDP will be brought to their knees so that by January they would be finally grounded with their leaders framed up and put behind bars”.
He alleged that in the script, APC and the federal Government believed that the party could only bark and not bite as observed in the case of Osun and Ekiti states while indeed they were set and determined for the worse rather than lose the election.
Secondus, therefore, warned that while the PDP believed and cherished all ingredients of democracy including the rule of law, it could not guarantee any situation that aimed at cowing the opposition and thwart the will of the Nigeria people.
He then chided Magu and other characters of his type who were willing to assist the APC in undermining democracy, to look back at history and know that the consequences were always not palatable.
Secondus also called on all lovers of democracy and rule of law especially international community to rein in President Buhari, Magu and the APC to observe the tenets of democracy that respected the sanctity of the opposition and human rights.
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