THE Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State has raised the alarm over alleged deliberate policy of the All Progressive Congress-led administration to hound perceived opponents to jail.
The Party’s governorship candidate in the State and a member of House of Representatives from Remo North, Oladipupo Adebutu said this in Abeokuta . PDP Adebutu who lamented that the current government in Nigeria has failed to learn from the lessons of June 12 which he said has been adjudged as possibly the most free and fair elections ever held in Nigeria.
He said “unfortunately, it now appears, it is a deliberate policy of the incumbent administration to hound perceived opponents to jail. “Our rights to a choice of political association is gradually being removed as a sure way to jail is to change your party affiliation from the ruling party to the opposition party.
“In Kaduna State, the incumbent government willfully and deliberately destroyed assets of perceived political opponents. “Today, it’s same in Ogun State. Seventeen young men and a serving state House of Assembly member were charged for murder of a man who died eight years ago but whom the police claim was killed on the 1st of June 2018.
“The trumped up charges were designed to intimidate and incarcerate them to the extent that they would not participate in the coming elections. It is also to deter others who may want to decamp from the ruling party. “These rights that we freely exercised 25years ago are now remembered in nostalgia. To us in Ogun State, we have a very strong attachment to June 12. And for me in particular, I have a very strong attachment to the day that would forever mark a watershed in our political evolution, as I was a member of the third national assembly that resisted the annulment of the June 12th election to the best of our ability.
“However, we must take cognizance of the fact that for these rights to be enjoyed, we must observe our civic responsibilities in the electoral process.
Source:Vanguard
