The Peoples Democratic Party has said the continued detention of its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission since Tuesday without charging him to court shows that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is dictatorial.
The major opposition party noted further that the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government had “disdain for rule of law and an appetite to gag the opposition,” saying the country had been turned into a police state.
The party said the continued detention was in clear breach of Metuh’s constitutionally guaranteed liberty and fundamental rights.
The PDP in a statement issued on Saturday by its National Legal Adviser, Victor Kwon, said relying on a purported holding charge allegedly derived from a magistrate to detain Metuh beyond the statutory period allowed by the law was in total violation of the constitution and “extant corresponding rulings by several trial and appellate courts in the country.”
The statement read, “We draw the attention of all Nigerians and the international community to this illegal clampdown on the opposition spokesman by the EFCC, using a purported holding charge said to have been derived from a magistrate court. Holding charge which implies ‘arrest before investigation’ instead of ‘investigation before arrest’ is clearly an aberration and abuse of judicial process which has since been declared by several courts as illegal, null and void, and of no effect as it is totally in contradiction with section 35 (1), (4), (5a) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“The PDP is particularly worried that Metuh, since his arrest on Tuesday, is being inhumanly kept in an underground cell where he is daily threatened by officials, who we gathered, have been mounting pressure on him to accept guilt of fictitious figures and implicate PDP leaders. The public is very much aware that the EFCC Chairman has visited the Presidential villa at least twice since Metuh was arrested and detained by the commission, ostensibly to get further directives on the case.”
The PDP legal adviser called on the world to note that President Buhari’s election promise of fighting corruption has allegedly been turned into a manhunt of PDP leaders.
He further claimed that known corrupt APC leaders were being shielded by the system and rewarded with ministerial positions and other government appointments.
“Our nation is now being turned into a police state with its inherent constitutional violations and infringement on rights of citizens, a scenario which poses grave danger to national stability and survival of our democracy. The PDP strongly cautions against the avoidable tension and looming political crisis over the continuous clamp-down on our leaders and particularly, the continued incarceration of our spokesperson, Chief Olisa Metuh, who was arrested a few days after he confronted the Federal Government and the APC over their dictatorial pronouncements and actions,” Kwon said.