By Samuel Ogidan
Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday vowed to resist attempt by the out-going Ekiti state legislators, on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC), to impeach Governor Ayo Fayose.
The party also described as “barbaric” the death threats on non-indigenes in Lagos by the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, if they voted for the PDP candidate, Mr. Jimi Agbaje.
The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, urged Nigerians to stand against “anti-democratic tendencies.”
The party condemned the emerging height of political recklessness in Lagos and Ekiti states ahead of Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections.
It said: “The senseless and unpatriotic impeachment move against Governor Ayo Fayose by out-going APC state legislators and the barbaric death threats on non-indigenes in Lagos by the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, that if they vote for the PDP candidate, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, to ascend to a height of unruliness that should not be accommodated.
“The PDP totally and unequivocally rejects the flimsy and unsubstantiated allegations concocted by the APC legislators against Governor Fayose. We state in very clear terms that we will stand with him and bear our full weight in defence of the mandate freely given to him by the people of Ekiti state.
“We invite all lovers of democracy and the international community to note the antics of APC and the deliberate plot to destabilize the polity even when it is yet to assume power.
“In the same vein, it is indeed most unfortunate that a royal father of the status of the Oba of Lagos should attempt to drag the revered traditional institution into partisan politics to the level of threatening innocent Nigerians with the view to prevent them from freely exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right.
“Our response to the Oba of Lagos is that he cannot play God and can never be God. God owns the universe and every part of it and can never share His glory with any human, no matter how highly placed.
“We, therefore, call on all Nigerians in Lagos state; all Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba and people of other tribes; all Northerners and Southerners; all Christians and Muslims, to turn against this unpatriotic stance, by coming out en-masse to vote for the PDP candidate, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, on Saturday.
“Undoubtedly, this anti-Nigeria position reminds of the 2013 inhuman and callous arrest, detention and eventual ‘deportation’ of non-indigenes by the APC-led government of Lagos state and confirms fears that the APC is indeed on a mission to destroy our national unity, balkanise the nation and obliterate the personal freedom Nigerians enjoy today.”
The party added: “Already, the APC has started terrorizing supporters of the PDP with vows to make life unbearable for them when it eventually assumes power. Our investigation reveals that many of our prominent supporters have been marked. The process has already started with threats to the life, family and business of the Chairman of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN), Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah, for supporting PDP candidates and helping non-indigenes win some Lagos seats in the National Assembly on the platform of our great party.
“Indeed, if these threats on a duly elected state governor and innocent Nigerians constitute the picture or foretaste of the order of the day when the APC finally assumes power at the centre, then the nation is in serious danger. However, the PDP states in very unambiguous terms that Nigerians would not accept such under any guise whatsoever.”
It urged General Muhammadu Buhari, as the leader of the APC, to call his members and supporters, particularly in Lagos and Ekiti, to order, “especially bearing in mind that it was the peaceful atmosphere and the level playing ground nurtured by the PDP-led administration that created the room for his emergence at the presidential polls.”
