August 27, 2018
Press Statement
PDP Rejects Buhari’s Stand Against Rule Of Law
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has told President Muhammadu Buhari
that his statement claiming that rule of law will become secondary to
his whims and self-determined “national interest” is strange to our laws
and completely unacceptable.
The party said the assertion is a direct trademark of despotic rulers
and as such cannot find expression or accommodation in a democratic
setting of our contemporary nation.
The PDP expresses readiness to rally Nigerians to reject every attempt
by President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to introduce
the long forgotten trappings of military dictatorship into our
democratic rule, which Nigerians labored for many years to attain.
The party further states that it will not stop at anything legitimate to
ensure that the International Criminal Court (ICC) holds President
Buhari responsible for violations of rule of law and criminal abuse of
human rights committed under his rule in the last three years.
It is instructive to note that contrary to claims by Mr. President,
there is no pronouncement by the Supreme Court that subjugates
constitutional rule of law and rights of citizens to the whims, caprices
and dictatorial impulses of any President.
Our national interest is thoroughly embedded, protected, expressed and
enforced only under the rule of law as provided by our constitution and
there is no how Nigerians can allow an individual to superimpose or
override the constitution with his personal whims and impulses; a
pattern that is characteristic of known dictators all over the world, as
expressed in the obnoxious Executive Order 6, designed to justify a
complete clamp down of political opponents ahead of 2019 general
elections.
President Buhari should therefore be made to answer for the litany of
human rights violations in Nigeria, including documented disobedience to
court orders, extra-judicial and arbitrary executions, unlawful arrests
and political detentions, killing of persons in custody, torture and
excessive use of force by security forces on innocent citizens,
destruction of property, restriction of free speech, press, official
corruption and lack of accountability as detailed in report by various
international bodies, including Transparency International (TI), Amnesty
International (AI) and US Department of States.
This is in addition to the quest to forcefully remove the leadership of
the National Assembly, the blockade of the National Assembly and siege
of the official residences of the Senate President and Deputy Senate
President by Presidency controlled-security forces.
We know that President Buhari is apprehensive of the electoral defeat
that awaits him in February 2019 for which he is seeking ways to subvert
the system, but we caution that in this desperation to hold unto to
power, he must not seek to again, subvert our constitutional order as he
will be firmly resisted by Nigerians.
The PDP therefore calls on all Nigerians, particularly the Judiciary and
the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) to speak out against this direct
assault on our democracy as a nation before it is too late.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
