Defections: Reps group urges Buhari to be tolerant of opposition

The Parliamentary Democrats Group in the House of Representatives has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to imbibe tolerance, urging security agencies to order over their actions against defecting members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The group through its spokesman, Hon. Golu Timothy, in a statement yesterday said its call was necessitated by the police action in Benue State, where eight members of the state House of Assembly were reportedly provided cover for, by a joint team of police and military personnel, to commence impeachment process against Governor Samuel Ortom, noting that the President should as the new Chairman of the ECOWAS, strive to lead by example.
“We call on him (Buhari) to be tolerant of the opposition and respect the rights of every person within the polity as he himself has to defect from APP to CPC and then to APC.
He must not allow the same scenario (Benue’s) to unfold in Kwara and Sokoto states, where the governors have left the ruling party.
What was good for the goose will surely be good for the gander, therefore Mr President must call the security agencies to order and ensure a level playing field ahead of the 2019 general elections,” the group said.
Continuing, the statements said, “Mass defection is a political rapture long predicted by keen watchers and analysts of political reality in Nigeria.
The APC is collapsing like a house built on sand because it has no foundation to sustain democracy.
As the new Chairman of ECOWAS, a subregional actor built on the rule of law and due process, the election of our President, Muhamadu Buhari should be a true test of this philosophy, and doing otherwise will be a mockery of that leadership.
“The West African community is watching to see how the President will carry on with the principles of the rule of law in his own country.
We urge President Buhari to wake up to the political reality that what goes around comes around.
The joy of the 2014 defections that produced him is turning around to produce a new political order for democracy in the country.
“Even though the President has come to deny involvement in the illegality going on in Benue where “16 is greater than 19”, we believe that it is not enough.
The fact that he has not categorically condemned it speaks volumes of a hidden agenda or conspiracy against democracy.
If 16 was greater than 19 that produced him in 2015, then 8 greater than 22 will surely produce someone else in 2019.