National Chairman of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Dr. Frederick Fasehun, has accused the Federal Government of setting security agencies to haunt and hound politicians in opposition parties.
Speaking in the wake of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC’s arrest last week of the Chairman of Daar Communications Plc, High Chief Raymond Dopkesi, the Elder Statesman said it was obvious that the country’s ruling party was goading state apparatuses into cowing the opposition, the Press and critics.
“All this smacks of an attempt to stifle the opposition and muzzle Press Freedom,” Fasehun said in a Press Statement issued in Lagos on Sunday. “Dokpesi’s arrest, on the excuse that he involved in illicit arms contracts, represents a frontal attack on Press Freedom and Freedom of Speech. It is clear that he is being persecuted for the stand his television and radio stations took in the last elections.”
The Elder Statesman notified the government that Nigerians saw the arrest as a high-handed political action.
Fasehun, who is also the Founder and President of the Yoruba socio-cultural group, the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), similarly cited the current travails of former National Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retired), who remained in detention without trial for weeks, during which he remained under house arrest and thereafter custody at the Abuja headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“I am sure High Chief Raymond Dokpesi can defend himself against the charges he faces. But these oppressive steps can only overheat the polity. APC wants to use them to destroy the group psychology of the opposition,” he said. “Not only are Dokpesi and Dasuki international figures, but leading opposition politicians whose travails will irredeemably dent this government’s human rights records.”
According to Fasehun, Dokpesi’s detention without being duly charged to a competent court was a dangerous affront on citizens’ rights to life, liberty, association and dignity as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution.
“The government must be aware that Nigerians see this assault on Dokpesi especially as a vendetta –payback time for the audacity his television and radio stations had to broadcast sensational documentaries on chieftains of APC, including General Muhammadu Buhari,” he said.
In addition, the UPN Chairman accused the APC government of playing holier-than-thou, giving the impression that those in the ruling party were all sanctimonious angels, whereas those who served under opposing parties were evil and corrupt.
He said: “The continued sheltering of APC politicians widely seen as corrupt shows that the so-called fight against corruption is merely a witch-hunt aimed at the opposition. Let someone tell APC that politics and elections ended on the day President Buhari took the oath of office and governance and nation-building must unfold in earnest.”
He urged the government to check the activities of security agencies.
His words: “Buhari must call the Nigerian Police, DSS, EFCC, ICPC, CCT and other such bodies to order. They are becoming partisan by the day, behaving like his infamous NSO of 1984. They appear to be acting as hatchet men for people in the ruling party. And as they are agencies of the Executive, their current unbridled conducts can only succeed in painting the ruling party and the Presidency as dirty, obnoxious and unpopular in the eyes of the public.”
Describing the arresting of highly-placed Nigerians as distractive and a play to the gallery, Fasehun urged the APC government to concentrate on governance and problem solving, instead of sweeping current challenges under the carpet.
“Nigerians are concerned about the lingering insecurity, the continued loss of the Chibok girls, the puzzling fuel shortage, unbridled unemployment, galloping inflation, the falling value of the Naira, the dwindling health of stocks on the capital market, the power crisis and so on. The government should concentrate on finding solutions to all these and stop this futile chasing of shadows,” Fasehun said.
However, he expressed confidence that any attempt to cow the opposition would fail because the opposition party was as necessary a pillar as the ruling party in a democracy.
Furthermore he said: “This intimidating change makes us feel nostalgic about how much we miss the crusading voices of Gani Fawehinmi, Beko Ransome-Kuti, Olu Onagoruwa, Wole Soyinka, Ubani Chima, Matthew Kukah, Olubunmi Okogie, Afenifere, Ohanaeze, Middle-Belt Forum, NBA, NUPENG, NLC and TUC.”
According to him, Nigerians wanted their President to remain at home and tackle his responsibilities instead of junketing around the world.
He said: “The President is missing in action. Initially, we said Nigeria under Buhari was flying in autopilot; but now the country has receded into sabbaticals, with no petrol, no jobs, no power, no salaries, and people are waiting for their President to give them a Happy New Year, especially when time comes to pay children’s school fees in the New Year.”
