Armed security operatives on attacked the Lagos, western
Nigeria office of the main opposition party in the country, the All
Progressives Congress, APC, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Lai
Mohammed, has said.
Mohammed further said the security
men destroyed the party’s data base calling it an impunity carried too far and
a scandal that can best be compared with the Watergate Scandal of the United
States of America that led to the resignation of the country’s president,
Richard Nixon in 1974. A statement from him on Saturday
afternoon, said the APC strongly condemns the invasion of its Lagos offices by
security agents, adding that it was one of the worst political scandals in
Nigeria’s history.
In the statement Mohammed issued in
Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, the APC said: “the invasion could only be likened to the
Watergate Scandal that led to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon in
1974, as a result of the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Democratic National
Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington,
D.C., and the attempted cover-up of its involvement by the Republican Nixon
administration.” It therefore called for an
independent inquiry to fish out those who ordered “the needless and unprovoked
attack” on the offices of the APC and ensure that they face very serious
consequences, irrespective of their status.
“Saturday’s attack is another one in
the string of attacks and illegal actions of the PDP-led administration. The
attack was unwarranted and unjustifiable. “To attack one of the offices of the
opposition party, APC, where legitimate operations of the party were being
undertaken is an act of fascism and totalitarianism. To the point of
brigandage, the invasion of the APC centre is an assault on the APC and its
entire membership across the country. It must not go unpunished,” the APC said
The party said though it had been
tipped off about an impending attack on the ‘secret warehouse’ of its leader,
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, “we dismissed such plan because there was no ‘secret
warehouse’ anywhere and also because we never imagined that the government will
attack the offices of an opposition party in a constitutional democracy. “Obviously we under-estimated the
desperation of the Jonathan Administration and its worsening proclivity to
impunity.”
Giving details of the invasion, the
APC said in the early hours of Saturday morning, a combined team of men of the
DSS and OP-MESA stormed the Bola Ajibola Data centre belonging to the APC in
the ikeja area of Lagos and arrested 25 APC data agents and three security
guards. “In what was a gestapo-like
operation, the APC membership data centre located at Number 10, Bola Ajibola
street, off Allen Avenue in Ikeja, came under siege between the hours of 5:30
am and 7:30 am on Saturday.
“An operation of terror and
brigandage was unleashed on a legitimate operation of a leading national party.
They came without a search warrant for the premises. “Over 50 security operatives drafted
from Abuja operations blocked the two major street entrances to the APC data
entry centre, pulled down the gates and spent over 2 hours ransacking and
vandalizing the centre.
“More than a dozen computers were
destroyed. The server was also vandalized along with other equipments in the
building. Just like the Watergate scandal in the USA, the state-sponsored
security operatives apparently acting at the behest of the ruling PDP
government turned the office upside down, and pulled out and vandalized
everything in sight.
“They chose to believe the lie that
it was a warehouse belonging to one of the national leaders of the party where
dangerous weapons were being kept, when in fact it is a centre for entering the
data provided by the millions of Nigerians who registered as members of the
party during its membership registration exercise,” the party said.
It described the invasion as another
act of impunity, now a trademark of the Jonathan-led presidency which is being
edged on by the hawks in the PDP. APC called the invasion of its
offices an attempt to suppress the opposition, get details of its membership
with the intention of using it to rig the 2015 elections and also to destroy
the spirit of democracy.
“When in 6 October, 2013 we issued a
statement alerting Nigerians that the Jonathan administration was using Rivers
State as a testing ground for creeping fascism ahead of the 2015 elections,
some said we were raising a false alarm.
“Well, here we are. In the past five
months, the PDP-led government has stepped up its acts of impunity and terror
against the leaders of the APC and all non-PDP actors. “Elected officers, who are not PDP
members, have had their rights repeatedly violated by the police and other
security operatives. Never before has an elected government been so scared of
the opposition to the point of shutting it down.
"Now that they have overreached
themselves by attacking the offices of the main opposition party and destroying
part of its membership database, can the PDP-led government still claim to be
operating under the rule of law? “Can the government sincerely tell
the world it is now ready for free and fair elections in 2015? This is one
impunity too many, and we will not allow it to be swept under the carpet,” the
party vowed
Culled: PM
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