PDP lays ambush on Buhari, asks Trump to advise him on endless killings, 2019 today
As all is set for US President, Mr. Donald Trump to host President Muhammadu Buhari at the White House today in Washington DC, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked President Trump to call his visitor to order in view of endless killing and abuse of due process the party alleged to have been on for long in Nigeria.
PDP equally urged Trump to take President Buhari to task on constitutional and human rights violations in the country under his watch, as already detailed in the report by the US Department of State.
Briefing the press in Abuja weekend, PDP’s national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said, “We also urge all international organisations, particularly, the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to take note of the horrendous situation in our country and spare no energy in intervening to stem this ugly trend. Let the truth be told, Nigeria is bleeding under President Buhari and the world must come to her rescue. We also pray that President Buhari will not use the occasion of his visit to further de-market our nation as he has always done whenever he is outside the country on official assignment.”
PDP added that “Nigeria is facing a perilous time; our constitution has been technically suspended; we have now become a police state; governance has reverted to the nightmares of the 1984 era, when draconian leaders held sway and forcefully held our people under the grips of military Decree 2.
“There is a total collapse of respect for constitutionally guaranteed personal freedom; there is no regard for natural course of justice, life in Nigeria is gradually returning to the state of nature and there is fear everywhere, he said, adding, “today, Nigerians are being hounded, arrested and directly detained on ‘order from above,’ without warrant; citizens are locked up in dehumanising detention centres without access to medicare and legal assistance, just for holding political opinions that run contrary to the views of those in power at the centre,” he added.
PDP relied on the 2017/2018 Amnesty International (AI) Human Rights report to remind President Trump to find out from Buhari why parts of the nation are bleeding endlessly.
The AI report had confirmed cases of extreme human right violations under the Buhari administration, including extra-judicial execution, forceful crackdown on peaceful protesters as particularly witnessed in the South East between September 2017 and January 2018, as well as, torture and killings in custody. Many arrested protesters are still in detention without trial.
The opposition party further alleged that government’s inaction and aloofness have led to escalation of killings in Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Kogi, Kaduna, Borno, Yobe, Nasarawa, Edo, Zamfara, Ekiti, Enugu by insurgents and marauders, “who are having a field day as the Presidency has abandoned governance for 2019 re-election bid.
“Painfully, our democratic institutions, particularly the legislature, judiciary and even the media are being decapitated by dictatorial forces, who are encouraged by the agents of the state at the centre.”
Ologbondiyan also recalled that “To achieve a total subjugation, there has been constant harassment and threats on judicial officers, some of them already compromised to circumvent judicial processes against opposition and perceived political opponents of government”.
