TheCable

Ayo Fayose, Ekiti state governor, has condemned the attacks on the ‘resume or resign’ protesters, saying President Muhammadu Buhari was not attacked when he led a protest against the late President Umaru Musa’ Yar’Adua.

In a statement on Wednesday, Fayose described the attacks on the group “as the height of dictatorship and demonstration of intolerance to opposing views by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government”.

“Even President Muhammadu Buhari led protests in Abuja against PDP government. The president led protesters to the national assembly to protest against the continued absence of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua from the country and went ahead to call for Yar’Adua’s impeachment. Then, no one was attacked by security men and hoodlums were not set after the protesters as was done in Abuja yesterday,” Fayose said in a statement issued on his behalf by Lere Olayinka, his spokesman.

He asked Buhari to return to Nigeria because the country “can no longer afford a diaspora president”.

Buhari has been in the UK where he is receiving medical treatment since May 7.

There have been protests demanding that he either resume office or resign.

“Nigeria can no longer afford a diaspora president or a president that is seen once in 100 days. If they say the president is now well, he should return to Nigeria or is Nigeria now in the hands of the president’s doctors?” he asked.

“By arranging hoodlums to attack Nigerians who were exercising their fundamental rights to protest against the government, the APC government has shown that it has lost support and trust of Nigerians.

“This country belongs to all of us, it is not the property of a few or a cabal who believes they can cow and subdue Nigerians, we will continue to talk. The president must either resume or resign; this is a clear statement. Who is afraid of the truth? Who is running away from realities?”

The governor also said it was now more obvious that the APC federal government does not have anything in store other than the destruction of the country.

“Nigerians will recall that during the BBOG protest in the Jonathan administration, protesters sat on the road for days, nobody molested them. During the January 2012 fuel hike protest (aka #OccupyLagos, #OccupyNigeria), people freely expressed themselves and those in government today participated actively in the protests, they funded these protests,” he said.

“It is therefore shameful that the same people who rode on the back of democratic principles to power are now standing against the rights of Nigerians to complain and the international community should pay special attention to the rule of brute force going on in the country.

“I salute the courage of this young people who have continued to say the truth that the president must resume or resign. If they are telling us the president is okay and fine, let him come home, let the doctors follow him here, we don’t want a president who is being introduced once in 100 days, the president we voted for must be accountable to us.

“Nigerians should vote against APC, never again should these people who I describe as power miss road control us again, thank you very much.”‎