Nigeria Sliding into a Totalitarian State, ANRP Calls on Citizens to Take a Stand for their Country

ABUJA, 6 December 2019 — Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) has denounced the Buhari regime for its serial disobedience of court orders, clampdown on journalists, and today’s utter desecration of Temple of Justice as operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) — which President Muhammadu Buhari has overall operational control — stormed the courtroom of Her Ladyship Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, of the Federal High Court Abuja, chased her out at gunpoint and brutally violated the constitutional rights of our compatriots, Omoyele Sowore, in order to rearrest him, and Olawale Bakare (‘Mandate’) after releasing them barely 14 hours prior, having held them illegally for week against valid orders of court, and having fulfilled and perfected all bail conditions. ‘They pulled guns at us inside the court and cocked’, says an eyewitness, and member of the legal team of the duo.

The attempt was to kill Mr Sowore in court and claim that had he attempted to escape therefore the legal team’s preference of the lead counsel, Femi Falana SAN, to drive him to the SSS facility and hand him over to them. The whereabouts of Mandate, at this time, is not yet clearly ascertained.

This frontal attack on the judiciary, an independent arm of government, by the Buhari regime began 3 years ago with the SSS raid, at night, of the homes of Adeniyi Ademola, and Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Abuja as well as Sylvester Ngwuta, and John Okoro of the Supreme Court; Kabiru Auta of the High Court in Kano; Chief Judge of Enugu, Justice A. I. Umezulike; Justice Muazu Pindiga in Gombe; Justice Samia in Sokoto; and Justice Mohammed Liman in Rivers, in a coordinated attack on the judges in 6 states. Today, a court session was disrupted in the manner it was. Tomorrow, it will be worse.

The Party deems this an attack on the judiciary, the rule of law, and all sense of decency. It is an affront on the principle of the separation of powers, which is a core tenet of democracy. It also an attempt to intimidate and cow citizens and all institutions of government.

When all powers are centralised in the executive arm, and such powers are unlimited, without checks and balances, as the regime seeks to control virtually all aspects of public and private life, then we are in a totalitarian regime, without constraints or restraints. This portends grave danger.

Thomas Jefferson, said, ‘When the people fear their government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people there is liberty.’ However, Frederick Douglass explained that ‘The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.’

ANRP therefore calls on all Nigerian citizens, no matter which side they are on, to see that this as assault on the judiciary, on the principle of separation of powers, on the rule of law, and promotion of lawlessness and abuse, which cannot be right or justifiable in any way.

The Party calls on all fellow citizens to put aside differences and protect our civil rule, our civil liberties, defend democracy and resist this slide to lawlessness and anarchy. She calls on all to be reasonable to understand that this is no longer about an individual, but about principles, and our collective survival as a Federation.

Sesugh Akume
National Spokesman

Telephone: 09064796674 (call, text, WhatsApp)
Email: nationalspokesman@anrp.org.ng
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