Secondus, Atiku, condemn Police invasion of lawmakers’ homes

www.odogwublog.com reports that National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus and former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar yesterday condemned the alleged siege in the Abuja residences of Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu by men of the Nigerian Police Force.

Secondus who accused President Muhammadu Buhari of using state security as attack dogs of his government, said there was a plot to remove the current leadership of the Senate by force, warning that such move may cripple the nation’s democracy. Warning the Commander-in- Chief on the consequence of endangering the nation’s democracy, Secondus further noted that nothing has been done in the past three years of President Buhari’s administration to deepen the democratic process. “The All Progress Congress (APC) government led by President Muhammadu Buhari using state security apparatus of the Department of State Service (DSS), Army and the Nigerian police have attacked the National Assembly with the aim of forcibly overthrowing the National Assembly leadership and rendering the third arm of government comatose. “It now a known fact that democracy has collapsed in Nigeria and we are now under a totalitarian and fascist government with no appetite for opposition. “President Buhari is a beneficiary of democratic election into power and since he took over on May 29th 2015, he has done nothing but destroy every fabric of democracy and the rule of law.

“We call on all Nigerians home and abroad to immediately speak up against this act of gross violation of the Constitution of Nigerian and the attempted disruption of the democratic process and institutions by President Buhari and privatized members of the Nigerian security agencies,” Secondus said in a statement made available to journalists in Tuesday. On his part, Atiku expressed worry over the alleged siege on Saraki and Ekweremadu’s homes, saying democracy must not be ambushed by those who ought to nurture it by virtue of the position they hold.

He said: “I remind the powers that be that on August 31, 2013, when Senator Bukola Saraki walked out of the PDP and began the process of joining the APC, there was celebration in their camps. “I also remind them that their electoral victory, which they have so badly mismanaged today, would not have been possible without the Senate President. “Power is transient and is also a trust that should only be used for the good and advancement of the people one leads and not for the persecution of real and imagined political opponents. “I remind President Muhammadu Buhari of his public words of solidarity to Senator Saraki after his ordeal of malicious prosecution, which thankfully was brought to a halt by the Supreme Court, and I urge him to live up to those words today and always.”

Meanwhile, former Minister of Special Duties and Presidential aspirant on the platform of the PDP, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, SAN, has welcomed the defection of 15 Senators from the APC into the fold of the PDP. Turaki who described the development as the beauty of democracy welcomed the lawmakers back to what he called their ‘natural home’. According to him, the return of the lawmakers “will further strengthen the resolve of the party to rescue Nigerians from the despotic, clueless and nepotistic APC government that has unleashed poverty, insecurity, killings and economic strangulation on Nigerians.” In a statement issued by the Director, Kabiru Turaki Presidential Campaign Organization, Sola Atere, the lawyer-turned politician also flayed the alleged ill-treatment of the leaders of the Senate, describing the manner of their handling as “Gestapo tactics, ” capable of undermining the nation’s democracy.

 Vanguard