A group, Conference of Nigeria Parties (CNPP) and some civil society organisations under the umbrella of Coalition Of National Civil Society Organisations have called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to prove to Nigerians that he is a democrat by ending the All Progressives Congress (APC)-invented script of detention without trial, using bogus allegations to keep suspected political enemies in detention indefinitely.
The political parties and CSOs urged Tinubu not to give suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele the same unlawful treatment that given to former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki by former President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
In a statement jointly signed by the deputy national publicity secretary of the CNPP, comrade James Ezema and the national secretary of the CSOs, Alhaji Ali Abacha said “playing the same APC card against Emefiele will clearly portray the president in bad light after pledging to uphold the rule of law in his June 12 message to Nigerians.”
They said detaining the suspended CBN governor for over a month without trial, only to charge him for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition at a time the court has already ordered his release is totally against the principles of the rule of law, fairness, and justice that the president has preached since May 29.
They said the charges against Emefiele followed the same old tricks of the APC government, which was invented in 2015, to detain citizens without trial.
“If President Tinubu is truly a democrat as he has continued to preach, his government must not adopt the APC’s eight-year-old brutal actions against suspected political enemies.
“We have watched with dismay how the Tinubu administration has been testing the undemocratic and anti-rule of law inventions clamping individuals into the DSS dungeons without trial.
“For instance, the case of Godwin Emefiele and that of the suspended Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, are bad records of detention without trial any democratic President should be remembered for,” the CNPP and the CSOs said.
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