Why Buhari’s rights abuse is worse than military rule – PDP

Popular Nigerian Opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has agreed with the US report, saying every Nigerian was aware that the present regime was guilty of rights abuses, TopNaija reports.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said this in an interview with PUNCH.

Ologbondiyan said rights abuses under the present regime were worse than what the country witnessed under military rule, particularly the regime of late General Sani Abacha.

He said, “In all honesty, every Nigerian knows that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is guilty of many abuses of human rights.

“For instance, the APC is claiming that it is encouraging women participation in politics, whereas, we have had situations where women who are participating in politics have gone through life-scaring situations, including being killed.

“Another example is that the right to protest is vehemently being destroyed by the government of this country going by what we witnessed in Lekki and going by what has been going on the streets of Abuja in respect of protests.

“In totality, the Buhari administration has abused rights in a propensity that even under the military, particular under General Abacha, we did not witness.”

On his part, a former President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Ugwumadu, in an interview, described the verdict of the US as depressing.

According to him, the global verdict diminishes the known ingredients of democracy.

He said, “Those constitutive blocks of democracy are free speech, rule of law, independent and impartiality of the judiciary, periodic and credible electoral process through universe adult suffrage, respect and obedience of court order and of course security. The Federal government should not be put off by such verdict.”

The Convener, Coalition in Defence of Nigerian Democracy and Constitution, Ariyo-Dare Atoye, said the report simply highlighted the endemic corruption under the Buhari regime.

He argued that corruption had been institutionalised under this government, noting that it required a foreign government to tell the FG the truth.

Atoye said, “The report from the US is not far from the truth. Corruption is not only alarming, it has now been fully institutionalised by the Buhari administration. Impunity has become the order of the day such that we are now in a government where graft is thicker than justice.

When contacted for the government’s reaction, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said since the report had to do with the government, the press should contact the Ministry of Information for government’s reaction.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, did not take his calls when our correspondent made attempts to contact him on the telephone.

He had also yet to respond to the text message sent to him as of the time of filing this report.

The same scenario played out when our correspondent tried to speak with the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), on the telephone on the matter.

Also, attempts to get an official response from the ruling All Progressives Congress were futile. Calls to the mobile telephone number of the Secretary, Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary National Convention Planning Committee, Senator John Akpanudoedehe, were neither picked nor returned.

A response to a text message to him on the subject was still being awaited as at 9:50 pm. The national secretary is also the official spokesperson for the party.

The Peoples Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Nigeria, along with its main rival, the All Progressives Congress.

Its policies generally lie towards the centre-right of the political spectrum. It won every Presidential election between 1999 and 2011, and was until the 2015 elections, the governing party in the Fourth Republic although in some cases, amid a few controversial electoral circumstances.