By Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja
In the absence of a substantive National Chairman, the lot seems to have fallen on Olisa Metuh, the party’s national publicity secretary to keep the Nigerian opposition Peoples Democratic Party relevant and in the news. You can call him the man doing the yeoman’s job or just simply the foreman of opposition politics.
Metuh, the Nnewi-Otolo born lawyer from Anambra state has been busy, clutching at any perceived errors of omission or commission of the ruling All Progressives Congress to ensure that the voice of the new opposition party is heard. He has at times even put on the garb of a rights crusader, questioning the legal propriety of arresting the former National Security Adviser and the Chief Security Adviser to the former president, Goodluck Jonathan. In doing his job, he sometimes provokes taunts from his opposite, Alhaji Lai Mohammed of the APC.
One of the recent interventions by Metuh was the allegation that the Director General of Department of State Security, DSS was a card-carrying member of APC. President Muhamadu Buhari had appointed Daura as the DG of DSS on 2 July to replace Ekpeyong Ita. The new DSS DG who was appointed in acting capacity was a former operative of the Service who rose to the rank of Director and was even Deputy Director of Presidential Communication, Command and Control Centre at the Presidential Villa Abuja between 2003 and 2007.
He had also served as the state Director of the DSS at various times in Kano, Sokoto, Edo, Lagos, Osun and Imo States. But the PDP seems to have not been comfortable with the appointment, much less the way the Daura born head of Nigerian secret police has conducted his activities since he took over.
The opposition party complained that the DSS under Daura has been witch hunting its members who held various offices under former President Jonathan in the guise of investigating corruption.
At a press conference addressed by Metuh some weeks ago, PDP accused Daura of interfering with electoral matters currently before some election petitions tribunals.
Specifically, the party alleged that Daura invited some people connected with the Rivers state Election Tribunal and other states. Dakuku Peterside, the Rivers State gubernatorial candidate of APC in the 2015 polls is challenging the victory of PDP’s Nyesom Wike in the election described as one of the most fraudulent ever conducted in the country. The Rivers Governorship Election Petition Tribunal is presently sitting in Abuja to avoid being enmeshed in politically motivated violence, which has been a constant feature of the city.
A motion by Wike seeking to relocate the Tribunal to Rivers as well as to disqualify the Chairman, Justice Muazu Pindiga was dismissed recently. Dame Gesila Khan, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner who presided over the 2015 gubernatorial polls in the State was also recently reportedly queried by the DSS.
“PDP decries attempts to enthrone draconian regime where security forces and other apparatus of the ruling party will decide to be influencing election matters and outcome on behalf of the ruling party,” the PDP Publicity Secretary said, at a press conference.
Last week, the PDP raised the bar against Daura by calling for his removal over allegations that he was a card-carrying member of APC.
The APC however wasted no time in dismissing the allegation, which it described as “absurd and frivolous.” The ruling party challenged PDP to provide evidence to back up its claims, a challenge which the opposition party eagerly took up.
At a press conference held last Thursday, Metuh not only affirmed that Daura is related to the President personally, it also provided evidence to prove that he served in the security team of APC presidential campaign.
PDP released photographs of Daura with other members of the APC Directorate of Security when they paid a courtesy call on Buhari after he won the presidential election as well as a newspaper cut out which listed Daura’s name, alongside others, as a member of the Directorate of Security of the ruling party.
Metuh added PDP believed that even if the president was free to appoint his relations to political offices, there are sensitive positions that by their very nature require people who are independent. APC however countered that the only evidence that will show that the DSS boss is a member of APC is production of his party’s membership card or evidence of his membership registration.
Lai Mohammed, spokesperson for APC said in a statement that rather than enforce it, the PDP has weakened its argument by using the pictures in which Mr Daura appeared with the President and the fact that he served in an election committee as evidence of his membership of the APC.
The ruling party cited examples of different individuals, including Mike Okiro, who chaired the security committee of the PDP campaign in 2011but was appointed the chair of the Police Service Commission among others to back up his position.
“Did retired Col Kayode Are not become the DG of the DSS despite being a close confidante of Obasanjo during his electioneering campaign to become president? Was this not under a PDP federal government? In any case, even in the world’s most advanced democracy, United States, was a card-carrying Democrat, Mr. Leon Panetta, not named as head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) by President Barack Obama in 2009? Here in Nigeria, the APC-led FG has not even gone that far, and the PDP is blabbing,” said Mohammed.
Olisa Metuh has also railed about Buhari’s appointment of Hajia Amina Bala Zakari as Acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. Metuh had alleged that Zakari was appointed acting INEC Chairman because of her very strong ties with the President and a governor from the North West.
The opposition party therefore declared the appointment of Zakari as unacceptable and demanded that President Buhari removed her immediately.
“With the prevailing record of Mr. President on appointments, it is unlikely that a substantive INEC Chairman will be appointed in the next one year. Is there a hidden agenda? Has Mrs. Zakari been handed a script to act given that we have cases in the tribunals in addition to the forthcoming elections in Kogi and Bayelsa?” PDP asked.