The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has noted that with the continued lockdown on the residence of Senator Dino Melaye by the police, the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency is turning Nigeria into a police state, where those opposed to President Buhari’s re-election are treated like enemies of the state.
A statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by Kola Ologbondiyan, Director, Media & Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organization, said the continued siege, which it noted had been widely condemned as unwarranted and provocative, shows that the police under President Buhari, has become an instrument of oppression to subjugate dissenting voices ahead of the 2019 general election.
The party invited Nigerians to note that the only sin committed by Melaye who is the Presidential Campaign Director of Civil Societies, is his return to the PDP and his forthright stand against the misrule of the Buhari administration, which is all well within his rights as a citizen.
It added: “Since Senator Melaye, left the APC, the Buhari administration has continued to hound and harass him, as well as the members of his family with trumped up charges, all aimed to silence and put him out of circulation ahead of the 2019 general election.”
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The statement said that the PDP has become extremely worried about the safety of Senator Melaye and his family members under police lockdown and charged Nigerians to hold President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) responsible should any harm befall him or any member of his family.
“This is particularly against the background of Senator Melaye’s outcry that the police planned to arrest and inject him with a poisonous substance,” the statement stated.
The PDP expressed the hope that opposition figures such as Senator Melaye will not suddenly become victims of ‘accidental discharge’, unexplained assassinations or mysterious motor accidents as move on to the general elections.
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