• As PDP kicks against his detention, Suswam’s incarceration
By Ismail Omipidan and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Supporters of former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido have threatened to take to the streets, today, if the police fail to release or arraign him in court, today.
A close associate of the ex-governor, Suleiman Ringim disclosed this to Daily Sun, yesterday.
Lamido was arrested by the Zonal Command of the Nigeria Police on Sunday on alleged inciting statement and remained in detention till yesterday.
“If they don’t release him (Lamido), and they fail to arraign him, we will certainly take to the streets of Kano to demand for his release,” he reiterated.
Ringim alleged that the ruling Progressives Congress APC) masterminded Lamido’s arrest, for fear of losing the forth-coming council election in Jigawa State. He said the ex-governor’s arrest and detention was a move to “intimidate and silence” him. Ringim said for the eight years Lamido spent as governor, council polls were held periodically, “as he never allowed what has become the norm in most states of the country–Care-Taker-Committee (CTC) in his administration.
Meanwhile, the National caretaker Committee of the Peoples Dmocratic Party (PDP has condemned Lamido’s arrest and detention. The committee, in a statement issued in Abuja, yesterday, by its spokesman, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, described Lamido’s arrest and detention as outrageous and anti-democratic. The opposition party added that Lamido was not arrested because he made any inciting statement as the police claimed, but because of the forthcoming local government election in Jigawa.
“The true reason for his arrest, however, is linked to the forthcoming local government elections in Jigawa state. The long incarceration of former governor Gabriel Suswan is also linked to the forthcoming council polls in Benue State.”
“The APC administration is fast losing the confidence of the people because of its non-performance, high handedness and lack of empathy over the suffering of the people. The only option left for it is to prevent the opposition from effectively campaigning and mobilising the people for the elections,” PDP said.
The main opposition party also alleged that “the whole strategy of the failed APC government is founded on the assumption that if there is no opposition, then they cannot be defeated. Hence, the intimidation, harassment and incarceration of popular opposition leaders like Sule Lamido.
“We are aware that we, in the opposition, will be in for a hard time in the run up to the 2019 general elections with more arrests and intimidation of our prominent leaders.”
The PDP accused President Buhari of “unleashing the Police and other security agencies to harass and intimidate judges, opposition leaders, social media influencers/bloggers and other Nigerians that speak against the APC administration at the federal and state levels in a bid to cow them.
The party added that “Lamido merely asked the people to defend their votes against rigging. How is that a crime? If you are not planning to steal the peoples’ votes, why should you be afraid if the people are advised to defend their votes? Of course, no thief would want the owner to guide his house against burglary.
“The excesses of the security agencies have now reached alarming proportions. If they must be reminded, their mandate is to defend all Nigerians and not to act as a willing instrument of oppression of the people by the autocratic APC government.
“We are, therefore, calling on the security agencies in the country to release unconditionally, Sule Lamido, the former governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, former governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu and all other political detainees in their custody. We are in a democracy and not a Gestapo state.”