The Alhaji Abubakar Baraje-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faction, otherwise known as New PDP, has likened what is happening today in Nigeria as being akin to what obtained under late military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha.

The party in a statement entitled “The dark days of Abacha are here again with us!” cited several instances to justify the claim and urged Nigerians to rise up and rescue the country from seeming doom. According to the statement signed by New PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze:

“It started like a joke. After the State Governors elected their leader, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, in a vote of 19 to 16, defeating Gov. Jonah Jang of Plateau State to retain his position as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), PDP under Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and their collaborators in government preferred the defeated candidate. They improved on this when they engineered five members of the Rivers State House of Assembly to attempt to impeach the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Dan Amaechree, in a House of 32 members with the intention of reconvening few hours later to impeach the Governor. If not for the swift intervention of the National Assembly, they might have succeeded in achieving their devilish aim without minding the consequences.

“These enemies of democracy did not stop there; they organised and stoned visiting Northern Governors on a solidarity visit to their Rivers State counterpart, not minding the consequences.

“They went ahead to illegally suspend a sitting Governor (Rt. Hon. Amaechi) against the spirit of the PDP Constitution, soon following it with the suspension of Gov. Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State for not picking the calls of the tyrannical National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. As if this was not enough, they went ahead to suspend Senator Andy Uba for winning the Anambra State PDP Governorship Primaries just because they preferred another aspirant. And then from nowhere they suspended PDP’s former National Vice Chairman, Dr. Sam Jaja!

“Not yet satisfied, these enemies of democracy had the guts to remove the name of Governor Murtala Nyako and that of one of the founders of PDP, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, from the delegates list of Adamawa State for their failed Special National Convention. Haba! What type of politics is this? And these people still want us at our ages to keep quiet and allow them to shave our heads while we do nothing! God forbid!!

“Against the spirit of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that clearly stipulates freedom of association for Nigerians – even the freedom of factionalisation of a political party as stated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), our people are being hounded in various states of the Federation. In flagrant and outright breach of the Constitution and abuse of the rule of law, today our National Secretariat remains sealed by the Police. To add insult to our injury, our Rivers State Secretariat just opened for business has also been sealed by the Police, who claim to be acting on orders from above. What is more, the Police also last night barred Gov. Amaechi and his guests (about 120 mainly former Speakers in the country) from entering the Governor’s Residence through the private gate of the state Government House, Port Harcourt. And we still claim that we are in a democratic society! Surely, even the days of Abacha were not like this!

“Indeed, General Sani Abacha must be lamenting in his grave that Nigerians wrongly abused him considering the high degree of impunities being encouraged in a democratic set up, with the Police being used as a tool to haunt political opponents.

“We are however consoled that while the G34 that gave birth to PDP was born during the dark days of Abacha, today a new PDP is being given birth to and is determined to legally and constitutionally fight these impunities being perpetrated by false democrats in our country.

“The removal of our candidates from the Federal Executive Council (FEC)

“No matter the flimsy excuses being given by the Federal Government over the sack of nine of our candidates from the Federal Executive Council (FEC), the truth of the matter is that these innocent Ministers were sacked because they were either nominated by us or sympathetic to our cause.

“We are aware that these Ministers had been under surveillance and denied the necessary tools to work with – in short, they were programmed to fail immediately they were identified with us. Sadly, these innocent Ministers have been sacked while the most corrupt Ministers whose atrocious activities are well known to Nigerians, are retained. “The most pitiable case of these sacked Ministers is that of our mother, the Minister of Housing, Ms Amal Pepple, whose crime was approaching Mr. President to plead with him, even kneeling down to beg him to forgive Gov. Amaechi for whatever sins he is assumed to have committed against him.

“We wish to assure these victimised Ministers that their travails are temporary. They have nothing to be ashamed of; their fate is in the hands of God and their future is very bright. Therefore, rather than being sad, they should count themselves lucky for being part of the struggle to salvage our party and country from the hands of opportunists who are using a political party which they do not know how it was formed to torment and haunt the founders of the party and their supporters.

“We urge former Heads of State, Religious Leaders, Our Royal Fathers, Civil Society Activists and all men of goodwill to intervene before these misguided elements plunge this Nation into anarchy. This Country belongs to all of us and we can no longer sit and watch an over ambitious cabal intoxicated by power brazenly inflict needless pain on us on a daily basis.

“We urge our supporters to continue to exercise patience and avoid the temptation to meet force with force so as not to play into the hands of our enemies. We also urge all Nigerians to intensify prayers for God to touch the hearts of our leaders so that these dark days of General Abacha during which people are haunted for expressing their views may be cut short.”

•Photo shows the late Sani Abacha.

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