Warns against blackmailing innocent Nigerians abroad
A political activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has challenged the Department of State Security Service (DSS) to make public the names of the Nigerians abroad and the foreign collaborators allegedly sponsoring the #RevolutionNow protest.
Frank, who warned against blackmailing innocent Nigerians abroad by the DSS, said the security agency should not allow itself to be used by the ruling APC against some perceived political enemies.
Reacting through a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Monday, to the claim by the DSS that some people abroad were behind the protest, Frank challenged the secret police to make its finding public or stop discrediting Nigerians.
Frank said: “I challenge the DSS to bring out proof that some people abroad are sponsoringย Omoyele Sowore’s #RevolutionNow protest. The current development has simply shown that the APC government is not used to democratic system of governance hence the fear it continues to create in the mind of Nigerians.”
Frank warned the operatives who are currently intimidating and arresting their fellow Nigerians to learn from the case of former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, who had power to arrest anybody then but now under perpetual detention.
“The DSS authorities should stay off politics and stop blackmailing innocent Nigerians for demanding for their rights.”
Frank described as a ‘lazy’ thinking for anybody to conjure that the Sowore-led group is planning to overthrow the current government.
He said: โIf there is anybody breaking the laws of the Federation by their actions it is the present administration and its officials who have no respect for the rule of law nor obey simple court orders.
“Where is the DSS’s intelligence that shows that some people are sponsoring the group? If the DSS is so sure of its assertions and not playing the script of the APCโs administration, the secret police should make public the names of the alleged sponsors.
“Nigerians and the whole world now know clearly that the current panic strickenย administration is not tolerant and it has just scored own goal by arresting a leader of a civil group demanding good governance without violence or any dangerous weapon.”
โThe current insecurity, hunger, parlous economy, unmitigated unemployment and disregard for the rule of law under this government has worsen to the extent that Nigerians would not need anybody to pay them before they come out on the streets to protest against bad governance being perpetuated by the APC.
“What happened in 2014 was not up to this level before Nigerians came out enmass under former President Goodluck Jonathan and the then administration didn’t accuse or arrest anybody. The General Muhammadu Buhari-led APC should learn to be tolerant,” Frank stated.