The All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised the alarm over a police siege on the residence of the Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Organization, Shehu Garba, saying the action is in line with the ongoing harassment and intimidation of the party’s leadership by security agencies.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday morning by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said Garba’s residence at the NNPC Quarters, Area 11, Abuja, was surrounded by armed policemen since 3 a.m. on Thursday, making it impossible for him and his family members to even go to the mosque for prayers.
”Going after the Spokesman of our party’s Presidential Campaign Organization is aimed at muffling the organization’s voice and abridging the constitutionally-guaranteed rights of the Spokesman himself. This is antithetic to democracy and totally unacceptable,” it said.
APC called on those who sent the armed security personnel to Garba’s residence to immediately order their withdrawal and tell Nigerians what he has done to warrant such harassment.
The party said coming after the siege by armed troops on the residence of the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in Lagos and a similar siege on the Imo State Government House in Owerri, it is now clear that the Jonathan Administration has finally launched its much-anticipated clampdown on the opposition ahead of the general elections.
”The PDP and the Jonathan Administration are bent on badgering the opposition through the harassment, intimidation and arrest of its leaders as well as the circulation of unfounded rumours against the party. These actions are all aimed at fomenting a crisis and scuttling the forthcoming elections.
”We are therefore calling on all Nigerians as well as the international community to take note of this growing pattern of harassment and intimidation of the opposition, and the effect such action will have on the conduct of the elections,” it said.
When The NEWS spoke with Garba at about 9 a.m today, he said the policemen had departed and that he himself had left the house.
According to him, they came in five cars and a van. The van was stationed directly opposite our apartment.
“They didn’t enter the house. We were watching them through the window”, he said.
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The level of impunity that is going on in this country is very unfortunate as that has even led to the level of intimidating the oppositions in the country. The siege of the house of the spokesman of the APC campaign is a demonstration of failure by the present regime as it will not yield any result. They have FFK and the APC has GARBA SHEHU why the intimidation. Nigerians are calling for change and the change has come.,,