TheCable

Timi Frank, a former deputy spokesman of All Progressives Congress (APC), has called on the US, UK, European Union and the UN to call President Muhammadu Buhari to order over alleged harassment of the opposition.

Frank made the appeal in a statement he issued on Thursday.

The former deputy spokesman of the APC said there is a “plot to arrest” Nnamdi Okonkwo, managing director of Fidelity Bank, because Peter Obi, vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was a former chairman of the bank.

Apart from Okonkwo, Frank said other businessmen have been arrested for supporting Obi and Atiku Abubakar, PDP presidential candidate.

According to him, the arrest of Doyin Okupe and the said search of the residence of Abubakar’s sons is “unlawful”.

“The APC’s government should not be allowed to create another monster. If nothing is done to halt this ongoing harassment, it will get to a state where people will begin to defend themselves and by that time the current Boko Haram insurgency will be child’s play, ” he said.

“In a democracy, how can a president treat his country men and women as less than human? The APC’s government is using state apparatus like the Police and EFCC to intimidate innocent Nigerians, unlawfully. Nigerians are living in fear. Freedom of Speech has been put on hold under President Buhari’s government. Critics of the administration are increasingly being hurled into jail.

“Despite signing the Peace Accord, we believe that President Buhari will not abide by its tenets based on his antecedents. Unless the friends of Nigeria come to its aid, unless this government is put to check, it is not only the 2019 election that is endangered. The continued existence of the country is also in jeopardy.

“So, I urge the international community and all the lovers of democracy all over the world to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to stop all forms of intimidation and harassment of Nigerian citizens over spurious allegations.”