The caucus of the Labour Party (LP) in the House of Representatives has queried the timing and intentions of the recent arrest of the National Chairman of LP, Julius Abure, in Edo stat.
The caucus describe the arrest as cruel, dehumanising and an abuse of democratic ethos.
The lawmakers expressed their dismay over the controversial arrest in a statement Thursday by the caucus leader, Hon. Afam Victor Ogene, in Abuja.
Spokesperson of the police for Zone 5, Edo state, Tijani Momoh, said Abure was arrested over a petition to the Inspector General (IG) of Police, in a case of alleged “attempted murder and conspiracy to commit dangerous harm.”
Ogene said the timing of the arrest, on the eve of LP’s primary election for the forthcoming governorship election in Edo state, which the Barrister Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) is overseeing, exposes the ugly development as a crudely scripted political charade that offends the sensibility of every true democrat and puts to question the integrity of the police on issues that involve the political class.
The LP caucus called on the IG to investigate the underlining issues that has put the police in bad light, by “Once again soiling the institution in the mud of desperate tussle for political powers, by those who see politics as a do or die affair.
“There is no excuse for the manner the police conducted the ill-timed and misleading arrest of LP national chairman. If there was any need for the Police to tak arrest Abure , a simple invitation would have sufficed.
“The inexplicable dehumanisation and brutalisation of Chief Abure was uncalled for. Democracy ought to refine our security agents and bring out the best in them, rather than enhance their biases and prejudices in the society,” it said.