The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that Nigerians would not hesitate to stand against the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari should Sunday’s “attack” against its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, at the Abuja airport on Sunday be repeated.
Atiku, a former Vice President, had announced on Twitter that security agents invaded his aircraft at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, in an attempt to intimidate him and members of his campaign team.
Atiku penultimate week held a “strategic meeting” with some leaders of the PDP in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) while outside the country, a meeting the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) urged the Federal Government to probe.
A special team comprising army, police, customs, immigration and other security agencies was said to have invaded the airport on “orders from above” and ransacked the ex-VP’s plane on Sunday as he jetted in from Dubai.
But reacting to the search, PDP accused the Federal Government of resorting to violence after its smear campaign against its candidate failed.
The party said while it remained committed to deepening democracy in Nigeria, it would not stand by and allow its presidential candidate be harassed by the All Pprogressives Congress (APC)-led government.
In a Sunday evening statement through its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party it condemned “in the strongest terms the unleashing of a special security squad of army, police and paramilitary agencies by the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency to physically harass our Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, at the Abuja airport, upon his return from Dubai.”
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The statement further read, “It was shocking when the deadly squad, in a Gestapo style attack, and acting on ‘orders from above’ rushed our candidate immediately he landed and attempted to physically manhandle him before invading his aircraft with dangerous weapons to conduct a violent search.
“While they did not find anything incriminating on our Presidential candidate, this deadly squad, violently tampered with certain personal documents and gadgets belonging to him, including some of his campaign documents.
“The PDP completely rejects such violence against the person of our Presidential candidate by the Buhari Presidency, which we know has been jittery over Atiku Abubakar’s soaring popularity since his emergence as our candidate.
“We invite the world to note that having failed to drag down our Presidential candidate with spurious allegations and smear campaign, the APC has now resorted to state-backed violence against him and must be held responsible should any harm befall him or any member of his campaign team.
“The PDP is for peace, but we will not accept this recourse to violence, which we believe is orchestrated to directly harm our Presidential candidate, foist a siege mentality on the system and set the stage for series of coordinated violence, ostensibly to truncate a peaceful conduct of the 2019 general election.
“The Buhari Presidency and the APC should bear in mind that this is an attack on our democracy and the collective sensibility of the overwhelming majority of Nigerians, across board, who have accepted the choice of Atiku Abubakar as Nigeria’s next President and they will vigorously deploy every means available in a democracy to defend him and our democratic process.
“Today, Atiku Abubakar, as a Presidential candidate, has the highest demography of supporters and volunteers across our nation and we will not hesitate to call them out in defence of democracy if another such attempt is made against our candidate.
“Nigeria is not a conquered territory and anybody that wants to foist a totalitarian regime on our land will be firmly resisted.
“We invite President Buhari to recall that as a Presidential candidate, he had occasions to travel out of the country and the government in power never besieged or harassed him in any way. His administration should therefore not introduce such violence in our democratic space.
“Finally, the PDP counsels the APC and the Buhari Presidency to know that power belongs to God and that the time has come for Nigerians to choose a new President, for which they have collectively rallied around Atiku Abubakar and that their resort to violence, smear campaign, character assassination and rigging will not change this resolve.”
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