Obasanjo: FG Plotting to Arrest, Detain Me
Atiku alarmed, urges government to retrace steps PDP: It confirms our fears that our dear nation has descended into a police state We will not be distracted by frivolous allegations, says FG
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday cried out over alleged plot by the agents of the federal government to arrest and clamp him into detention.
The former President in a statement released by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, attributed the alleged plot to his constant criticisms of the “inadequacies and bad policies of the Buhari’s APC-led.”
In a swift reaction, former vice president Atiku Abubakar expressed serious concern about Obasanjo’s claims and advised that government and its agents should retrace their steps “to avoid aggravating the already over heated polity.”
However, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the Buhari administration would not be distracted by “frivolous allegations from any quarter.”
Obasanjo in his statement claimed that he had become an enemy of the APC-led administration, following his State-of-the-Nation special statement on January 23, 2018, “which is an aftermath of the current desperation to frustrate, intimidate and blackmail him into abandoning his divine mandate to protect the rights of the people to better life and living continued unabated.”
The statement reads: Based on information, impeccable security sources have alleged Chief Obasanjo's name is on their watch list and that the security of his life cannot be guaranteed.
"Many of these agents of government that are in the top echelon of the nation’s security management and close to the corridors of power, the operatives are daily perfecting how to curtail the personal liberties of the former President and hang a crime on him.
"Ordinarily, we would not have dignified these reports with
a response but for the fact that many of these informants are not known for flippant and frivolous talks. Secondly, this government has demonstrably exhibited apathy, and in some cases, encouraged by its conduct, daily loss of lives and property in many states of the country, the office cannot be indifferent.”
The statement alleged that the current government was gradually becoming dictatorial and averse to constructive criticism.
"We are currently in a nation where the number three citizen is currently being harangued and the number four citizen is facing similar threat within the same government they serve. There is a groundswell of our nationals that live in fear that they could be hounded, harassed, maimed or even killed as the battle for 2019 takes this worrisome dimension.
"For Obasanjo, this is a joke carried too far and being someone who do not act on unofficial information, he had cautioned all informants and adopted a wait-and-see attitude to the bestial propositions allegedly being contemplated to cow, cage and embarrass him.
"The content of the alleged beastly designs, it was learnt, are two-fold for now. One, is to seize his international passport and clamp him into detention indefinitely in order to prevent him from further expressing angst on the pervasive mediocrity in the quality of governance, economic management and in the protection of lives and property by the government.
"But, since that could expose the government to a swath of international condemnation, embarrassment and outrage, it is said that another plot being hatched is to cause the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to re-open investigation into the activities of Chief Obasanjo’s administration using false witnesses and documents. This will be a re-enactment of the Abacha era in which Chief Obasanjo was one of the principal victims.
"The same EFCC that had conducted a clinical investigation into the activities of Obasanjo's eight-year administration, in and out of government, it was said, would now be made to stand down the existing report that gave Chief Obasanjo a clean bill of health on the probes, are now to get him indicted, fair or foul for possible prosecution and persecution like it is being done to real and perceived opponents, enemies and critics of this government.
“Dissent is a fundamental principle on which liberal democracy is predicated. A true democrat must be ready to live with and accommodate dissent and opposition," the statement said.
Besides, it alleged that the Buhari government had sunk itself “into shameless desperation to cow opposition, a resort to blackmail, despotism and Gestapo-like tactics being employed by the agents of the government.”
The Obasanjo statement continued: "For the record, Chief Obasanjo reiterates his readiness to face probe again after that of the House of Representatives, the Senate, the ICPC, and the EFCC, but before an independent, objective and credible panel of enquiry to account for his eightyear stewardship in government and beyond.
“Chief Obasanjo makes it abundantly clear that he has taken a principled position to ensure that the ship of the Nigerian State does not capsize and he remains steadfast in his resolve to turn the tide of maladministration, poor economic management and rudderless governance model that has torn Nigerians apart on account of religion and ethnic diversities which is a great threat to our democracy.
"We would like the government and its supporters to understand that no amount of campaign of calumny, no matter how well contrived, orchestrated or marketed would deter Chief Obasanjo from calling a spade by its name. Chief Obasanjo is a patriot whose sole agenda is to ensure that the country’s unity, progress and democracy are not negotiated on the altar of incompetence and provincialism and mediocrity.
"It is important to point out that chief Obasanjo is one former President and Head of State who has engaged the current administration privately and in a bilateral manner on several issues of direct interest to the government and other matters of national concern. That channel of private engagement remains open and continues.
"However, should there be the need for public engagement, the right to free speech will always be exercised and jealously guarded, again in the best interest of Nigeria and the government."
Atiku Alarmed, Urges Government to Retrace Steps
On his part, former vice president Atiku Abubakar said he received with serious concern, “the purported alert raised by Obasanjo of an alleged plot by the government to arrest him on trumped up charges.”
In a statement by his media office yesterday, Atiku said was disturbed “by this turn of events in our dear country considering the huge price that was paid for us to have democracy.”
He continued: “I wish to advice that government and its agents should retrace their steps to avoid aggravating the already over-heated polity.
“The alert by President Obasanjo is coming against the backdrop of earlier alerts by some leaders, especially those of the opposition of deliberate and orchestrated attempt to intimidate and frame them up.
“I wish to state without equivocation that President Obasanjo is a historical figure in Nigeria's democracy and that the primary purpose of government is to provide security of lives and property of all citizens and residents irrespective of their status, political affiliation, religious inclination and ethnic leanings.
“Our nation has lost so much precious lives and property that we can no longer afford to travel that road again. I wish to appeal to President Buhari to call the security agencies to order in order to douse the tension in the land.”
PDP: It confirms our fears that our dear nation has descended into a police state
In a related development, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also expressed worry over alleged move to arrest Obasanjo “on trumped up charges and detain him indefinitely.”
The party in a statement yesterday said the revelation coming from a Nigerian of Chief Obasanjo status was terrifying “as it has heightened the tension in the polity and confirmed our fears that our dear nation has descended into a police state where any Nigerian, who holds a divergent view to President Buhari 2019 re-election bid, becomes endangered.”
In the statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said the alarm by Chief Obasanjo had further shown that the PDP had not been crying wolf regarding the plots by the APC-led federal government to frame, arrest, detain and arraign political opponents of the APC, including regular Nigerians, for holding or canvasing opinions that are divergent to the interest of those in power.
Ologbondiyan said: "We invite Nigerians to note the travails faced by perceived opponents of Buhari Presidency including Senate President Bukola Saraki, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, Senators Shehu Sani and Dino Melaye, who had raised similar alarms in the past.
“PDP urged Nigerians to note how APC controlled security forces, on Wednesday, arrested and detained opposition members in Ogun state, including a member of the House of Assembly, Hon Adebiyi Adeleye, who was going about their legitimate activities, only to tag them as cultists.
"The PDP condemns APC’s resort to persecution, intimidation, harassment and framing of our members, as well as dissenting voices, just to suppress the opposition ahead of the 2019 election.
"PDP wants the APC and Buhari Presidency to note that no amount of coercion, intimidation and illegal arrests will alter the determination of Nigerians to vote out the dysfunctional APC and rescue our nation from the shackles of the Buhari Presidency and its misrule, come 2019.”
We will not be distracted by frivolous allegations, says FG
In his reaction to the Obasanjo allegations, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the Buhari administration will not be distracted by “frivolous allegations from any quarter, especially those cleverly choreographed to divert attention from a widely-acclaimed presidential proclamation and to shore up support for a waning and egotistical cause.”
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday, the Minister said the federal government was too busy trying to clear the mess of 16 years and “building on its unprecedented achievements over the past three years, to waste its energy and time on framing up anyone or dwelling on issues that are not grounded in fact.”
He said while those who have skeletons in their wardrobes should be afraid even of their own shadows, innocent persons need not worry about any investigation, whether real or imagined.”
He continued: ''This administration will never engage in a frame-up of innocent citizens. That is neither in the character of President Muhammadu Buhari nor in that of his administration. Only the guilty should be worried. To paraphrase an African proverb, a man who has no wife cannot lose an inlaw to the cold hands of death.”