The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has strongly condemned the arrest of the former Governor of Zamfara, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, by the police for allegedly making an ‘inciting’ comment on FRCN Kaduna, saying the arrest may signal an impending clampdown on the opposition by an increasingly jittery Federal Government.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said Senator Yerima’s arrest by the police, for saying in a radio interview that there will be a mass protest if INEC refuses to register APC after it would have met all legal requirements, is nothing short of budding fascism.
It said Senator Yerima did not say anything extraordinary by threatening a protest, because protests are an integral part of liberal democracy and cannot be wished away or banned by anyone.
”We will like to say, in support of Senator Yerima, that if INEC refuses to register the All Progressives Congress (APC), when all the legal requirements have been met, the protest in Tahrir Square in Egypt will be a child’s play compared to what we will do at the Eagle Square.
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”We say this because we are aware that the PDP, which is mortally afraid of the rise and rise of the APC, is behind the phantom African Peoples Congress which has applied to INEC for registration, in an effort to instigate an acronym crisis and give INEC a reason, if it needs any, not to register the All Progressives Congress.
”But we will like to warn that if indeed INEC has not merged with the PDP, as one of our leaders, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, has brilliantly said, then we do hope that the electoral body – which by the way is not unaware of the All Progressives Congress as the authentic APC – will not succumb to the evil machinations of the apprehensive PDP,” ACN said.
The party said it expects more arrests, investigations by the pliable anti-corruption agencies and other acts aimed at intimidating its leaders in the weeks and month ahead, but warned the FG to make sure it had enough prison space to accommodate those it plans to arrest.
”After all, it is generally believed that the recent redeployment of Police Commissioners in the states was done in readiness for the pre-2015 clampdown on the opposition. We know the arrest of Senator Yerima is just a tip of the iceberg, as the PDP-controlled FG gets ready to bare its fangs. But we must warn that fascism can never prevail over liberal democracy,” it said.
Also, Mr Osita Okechukwu ,publicity secretary ,APC Interim Management Committee ,South East has also condemned the arrest .He said in a statement today that “The All Progressives Congress {APC} South East Zone condemns in no uncertain terms the news which filtered in before the close of our meeting that Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima was arrested by the Kaduna Police Command over his comment on the phone-in-program of Radio Kaduna.
“We are yet to locate where Senator Yerima’s answer to a caller’s question on what APC leadership will do in the event that after meeting all the requirements, INEC deliberately refuses to register APC. In which he answered that a peaceful demonstration will be staged in Eagle Square by himself, General Buhari, Asiwaju Tinubu and other stakeholders, similar to that in Tahir Square Egypt, amounts to incitement or breach of public peace.
Okechukwu added that “We are alarmed that panic, emotion and APC Phobia have set-in; for the other day, Peoples Democratic Party {PDP} Governors Forum was hurriedly packaged after the Progressives Governors made their debut, secondly the Progressives Governors’ Forum was attacked by the presidency for visiting Borno State, today, arrested though released is one of the prominent members of APC for his innocent comment on orders from the above. Tomorrow only God Knows what will happen as panic, emotion and sentiment has set-in?
“The APC South East wishes to caution that as we approach the 2015 general elections, intimidation and undue arrest should be consigned to the dark ages of the yore. And most importantly, that the relative frontiers of freedom which democracy bestowed on the nation shall not be abridged by any group or persons for self -preservation.
