Ex-ministers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) say the arrest of Sule Lamido, a former governor of Jigawa state, marks the beginning of “second phase of the maltreatment of the opposition, especially members of the PDP”.
Lamido was arrested by the police and arraigned for alleged incitement of the public.
In a statement on Wednesday, Abubakar Sulaiman, a minister in the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan, accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of witchhunt.
He said Ibrahim Idris, inspector-general of police, should be bold enough to tell Nigerians how inciting Lamido’s statement was and the extent to which it constituted threat to national security.
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Sulaiman said the arrest of the former Jigawa governor was an utter display of executive recklessness, intimidation and brazen violation of fundamental human rights by the Nigeria police.
“We, the PDP ex-ministers feel saddened by the kind of lawlessness, persecution and ceaseless intimidation of our members by the current APC government on trump up charges and phantom allegations that are unknown to any extant existing law of the land,” it read.
“No doubt, Lamido’s current travails marks the beginning of second phase of maltreatment of opposition, especially members of the PDP. We, however, condemn in totality this heinous act of tyranny and despotism by the current government.
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“We equally urge the IGP to release Sule Lamido and withdraw any charges they might have levlled against him, in the interest of peace, justice and sustainability of our hard-earned democracy.
“We should no longer take this country for granted, as nobody, not even the law enforcement agencies have the monopoly of coercion. The earlier we allow the supremacy of law to take precedence over the rule of brute force, the better.”
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