The All Progressives Congress (APC), Rivers State Chapter, has condemned, in the strongest terms, the harassment of former Minister of Education, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, as she tried to travel to London for a scheduled engagement.

Rivers APC in a statement issued in Port Harcourt by the State Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, described the action of the SSS as shameful, unwarranted and a throwback to the dark days of military dictatorship.

“For SSS operatives to attempt to confiscate the travel documents of Mrs. Ezekwesili and seek to prevent her from boarding her flight just because she is leading the campaign to get the Goodluck Jonathan administration to do something meaningful to free the abducted Chibok schoolgirls speaks eloquently about government’s lack of seriousness in looking for these innocent girls who were in the first place abducted because government abdicated its responsibility of providing their school with the needed security. This means that Nigeria has returned to the dark days of military dictatorship when the rights of Nigerian citizens were trampled upon with impunity,” Ikanya said.

The party chairman further described the action as “barbaric, wicked, unjust and a slap on the faces of the abducted Chibok girls, who have inexplicably spent over three months in Boko Haram’s custody while the Jonathan administration carries on as if nothing has gone wrong.”

Rivers APC commended Dr. Ezekwesili and her group for refusing to be cowed and for forging ahead with the #BringBackOurGirls campaign despite all efforts by the Presidency to get them to abandon the struggle. “We are happy that this act of tyranism aimed at intimidating Dr. Ezekwesili has failed woefully. We appeal to this woman of rare courage and her group to soldier on until the Jonathan administration does the right thing by rescuing and bringing home the over 250 schoolgirls abducted from their dormitory by the Boko Haram sect on the night of April 14.

“We are happy to note also that the SSS operatives later allowed good reasons to prevail by releasing the travel documents of this great Amazon of our democracy and allowed her to travel for her scheduled London event. We are hoping that the SSS operatives and other security organs in the nation will not allow themselves to be used as oppression tools in the hands of a misguided Presidency to suppress their perceived political opponents.”

•Photo shows Oby Ezekwsili.