The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the International Criminal Court of Justice (ICCJ) in Hague (Netherlands) to immediately arrest Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, for prosecution over remarks that threatened the international election observers.

To Hope Democratic Party presidential candidate, Ambrose Owuru, el-Rufai’s “contentious statement” mirrors “the view and calculation of the inner caucus of the ruling government in power judging from his earlier insistence and vocal demand that the Chief Justice of Nigeria Walter Onnoghen should resign over allegation against the jurist.”

National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, who made the call at a party rally in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, said: “with your mandate, there will be no killing anymore in Benue. When APC Government came in 2015, the killings started with Benue, they got to Taraba, to Plateau and now Zamfara.

“Yesterday (Thursday), we went to Katsina, there were killings in eight local governments areas. That is the President’s home state. The killing is so much in Nigeria. When you vote and you defend your vote, you have stopped the killings, poverty, and hunger in the land” he added.

On the need for the ICC to arrest el-Rufai, the PDP boss said: “You are aware that the Governor of Kaduna State has said that people will be killed and carried in body bags. And we must stand because they cannot kill us. The international community is aware”

He assured that Atiku Abubakar would create jobs for the teeming youths because he has done it before and he will do it again. Owuru noted that it was obvious the threat is to cow the international community to conform and look away from the compromised electoral system and rigged election. He stressed that no democratic election can come from an already compromised electoral system and when the president has refused to sign into law the parliamentary passed electoral reform bills that would have guaranteed a democratic free and fair election through electronic collation and transmission of election results.

•Excerpted from The Guardian report