Press Release:
Demand Notice :Free Senator Abaribe
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The above subject refers:
The detention of the Senator representing Abia South Senatorial District and Chairman Southeast Senate Caucus who is the current Chairman Senate Committee on Power, Steel and Metallurgy, Senator Enyinnaya Harcourt Abaribe, by the Department of State Security Services (DSSS) Abuja and subsequent search of his Abuja residence without any explanation is gestapo and reminds one of the sad day of military dictatorship.
The right to free speech as enunciated in the 1999 constitution as amended cannot be suppressed. We are at loss as to what to make of the avalanche of arrests in the immediate past by the APC government, whereas we support the disposition of government at all levels, to fight corruption and all forms of state crimes, we will not clap for the APC federal government for its penchant to infringe on the fundamental human rights of Nigeria through the use of state law enforcement agents.
In the last three years of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime, there seems to be an accentuated occurrence of political intimidation and administrative oppression, which unfortunately are not parts of the tenets of democratic any where in the world, if the President truly belongs to everyone and belongs to no one then he must be seen to be fair to all manner of persons regardless of their opinion, creed or status. He must begin to ensure that Nigerians do not loss confidence in his ability to be unbiased by directing appropriate officials of his government to do justice at all times by following rigorously the full extent of law in the discharge of their duties to guarantee the unity of Nigeria.
We will not shield Senator Abaribe if he has any case to answer, but the process of his arrest leaves more to be desired in a government of change, a government that promised Nigerians obedience to the rule of law.
We had expected that owing to the fact of Senator Abaribe being a senior citizen and a high ranking Senator of several years standing, he should have been given the benefit of doubt and would have been invited to answer any question(s) that there are, and he would have honoured the invitation in a most civil manner and not through this abduction like arrest, of a man who has no prior criminal records or judicial conviction whatsoever.
For us the strategy to arrest and detain unsuspecting citizens of this country on weekends to deprive them of their fundamental human rights to seek redress by arraigning them in court on or before 48 hours is becoming disturbing and depriving them of access to aids for freedom is most regrettable, and it gives us great concerns as to whether we are not back to the dark days of military dictatorship.
We wish by this press to draw the attention of the general public to danger of this surreptitious arrest and the imminent threats to the life of our leader as the reasons for his detention remains unknown.
We therefore call on all well meaning Nigerians and the leadership of the National Assembly to demand from the DSSS the reasons for the arrest of Senator Enyi Abaribe, failure to which the Federal Government should order the immediate and unconditional release of Senator Enyi Abaribe or show cause why he will enforce his rights to liberty as a legitimate citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Signed:
Amb. Bestman Eruba, Esq.(Ogele Obingwa)
President Abaribe Vanguard and Coordinator #RELEASEABARIBECampaign.
Saturday July 23, 2018.
