By Cajetan Mmuta
The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general elections, Mr Peter Obi on Tuesday raised the alarm over the alleged secret arrest and intimidation of his supporters under the umbrella of Obidients Movement.
Obi strongly condemned the hard approach apparently deployed by security agents to silence opposition voices.
He warned that the right to peaceful assembly campaigns and other civil liberties are clearly guaranteed in the constitution and cannot be deliberately violated by security operatives.
Recall that the Labour Party presidential candidate and his running mate, Yusuf Baba-Ahmed Datti have been holding rallies in different parts of the country with massive supporters in attendance, a development that is now a source of concern to both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Some of the supporters, key actors, believed to be the brains behind the mass movement were said to have been silently arrested by security operatives.
Obi in a Twitter post, said that elections are not deemed free and fair when a certain group deploys the tool of intimidation as a strategy to silence the opposition during campaigns and voting.
He called on the Nigerian government to caution security agents on the need to respect the rights of the citizens in the discharge of their duties.
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According to him, “Elections are not deemed free and fair when a certain group employs the tool of intimidation to ensure that the opposition is silenced, both at the campaigns and at the polls.*
The LP Presidential candidate noted that “Peaceful assembly and unfettered electioneering campaigns are constitutionally guaranteed.”
“Both and other liberties cannot be breached wilfully by security agents,” he said
Reports of supporters of Obidients Movement being silently arrested by security agents is extremely disturbing and condemnable.”
“We must ensure that everyone is given a level playing field in the forthcoming elections and that no eligible Nigerian, irrespective of ethnicity, religion,” Obi stated.
Investigations showed that the camps of the APC and the PDP are jittery that there is the tendency that the Obidients Movement supporters may likely swell votes for the former Governor of Anambra and Yusuf Baba Ames his Vice Presidential candidate in next year’s elections.
Also, there is fear in the calculations of the powers that be in the north and South West parts of the country who had tactically zoned the Presidency to the South West with Ahmed Bola Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of the APC and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar from the north as the candidate of the PDP for the polls next year.
It is feared that Obi might secure overwhelming protest votes of people who are opposed to the seeming gang-up by forces of the APC and PDP to deny Ndigbo in the Southeast geo-political zone from producing the country’s next president.
