Governors elected on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have accused President Muhammadu Buhari of gradually turning Nigeria into a dictatorship.
The governors, under the aegis of PDP Governors Forum, made the claim on Tuesday after their meeting held in the inner chamber of the Bayelsa State Governor’s office in Yenagoa.
The Forum, led by Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, condemned the invasion of Akwa Ibom State Government House by operatives of the Department of the State Security (DSS) at the weekend.
Mimiko, who read the PDP Governors Forum’s communique, said the invasion was against the spirit, ethos, values and fundamental tenets of democratic norms and tradition, more so with the existence of a duly elected and sworn in governor of the state.
He said, “We insist that the trend must stop henceforth. No democracy survives without a viable opposition in any part of the world and we must also remember to remind the APC that they are the real beneficiaries of the liberal democratic ethos of the PDP.
“We once more advise the DSS to preoccupy itself with the task of ensuring internal security and desist from daily harassing and intimidating members of the opposition.
“We implore the international community, the civil society organisations and human rights activists to caution the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government and to insist that it respects the well-entrenched democratic tradition.
“We all have a duty to prevent what looks to us like a steady slide of this country into dictatorship”.
Mimiko said the PDP governors were worried, alarmed and shocked by such desecration, noting that it was an assault on democracy.
A situation like what happened in Akwa Ibom, the forum said, portends doom and posed serious danger to the country’s fledgling democracy.
They also described the action as one of the continuous attempts by the APC-led federal government to stifle the opposition.
This so-called dictatorship is better than kleptocracy
The opposition has been stifled by the peoples votes. PDP members should address how their misfortune reduced a national party into a regional party due to crass incompetence, corruption, dereliction of duty and non-performance instead of playing to the galary and watching their numbers deplete steadily day-by-day. Save for South East and South South who are blindly following Jonathan on tribal sentiments, PDP is a rejected party!