Lawyers and activists have called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and service chiefs to caution desperate politicians blackmailing Nigeria’s security agencies for selfish, sinister motives.
They said the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its governorship candidate in Kogi State should be particularly called to order.
The activists, under the aegis of Lawyers and Activists for Good Governance, who have been in the struggle against bad governance for over 16 years, called on security chiefs in the country to caution and deal appropriately with politicians that have continued to drag security agencies into the dirty arena of politics through unwarranted and incessant blackmail with which they hope to compromise them.
The activists, numbering about 500 across Nigeria, and represented by stakeholders from the geopolitical zones at a press conference in Abuja, said this must be done as a matter of priority to ensure violence and crisis-free elections, especially in Kogi State.
They specifically accused the Social Democratic Party and its candidate, Muritala Yakubu of deliberately blackmailing the Police and the Department of State Services (DSS), to prevent them from carrying out their constitutional assignments of ensuring security of lives and property and preventing criminal activities from festering.
According to them, they had raised the same alarm in July, this year, when the trend first reared its ugly head.
The co-convener, Lawyers and Activists for Good Governance, Comrade Mohammed Sanni, who addressed the press, referred to a recent press release by the SDP, in which the party passed a vote of no confidence in the security agencies in the state, while alleging that they were planning to arrest some of their members.
According to him, the SDP candidate is the only candidate that has had a running battle with every Police Commissioner posted to Kogi State and should be thoroughly investigated.