By Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded the immediate and unconditional release of its Kwara South Senatorial candidate, Senator Rufai Ibrahim, and other members of the party framed up, arrested and detained by the police in Kwara State.
The party, in a statement Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, cautioned the police against harassing, arresting and detaining its members on flimsy charges, as such would directly pit security agents against the people in a manner that might spark off violent resistance with regrettable consequences.
He stressed that the resort to police brutality by the All Progressives Congress (APC) is a script by a losing team which seeks to introduce violence and use the police to execute its rigging plots.
The main opposition party noted that the continued detention of Ibrahim on the eve of a crucial election, in which he is a lead contender, is completely provocative.
Ologbondiyan stated: “PDP in clear terms cautions the APC and their compromised security agents that nobody has the monopoly of show of strength. Our members in Kwara or any other state, for that matter, are law-abiding but will never allow themselves to be subjugated by anybody, particularly in this critical electoral process.
“In this regard, our members should immediately activate their individual and collective defence mechanisms by using every legitimate means available, to resist the aggression of the APC and their compromised security agents as well as dismantle their rigging machineries.
“We know that the plan of the APC is to stop our members from accessing their polling centres. Our members should deploy all legitimate means, including lawful self-preservation strategies and tactical manoeuvres to beat the aggressions, arrive at their respective polling centres and exercise their voting rights accordingly.”
The party said that Nigerians would recall its protest against the deployment of Bola Tinubu’s former ADC, CP Kayode Egbetokun, as Kwara State Commissioner of Police, wherein it alerted of plots by the APC to use him to incite the people, cause pandemonium and pave the way for outright rigging in favour of President Muhammadu Buhari and all other candidates on the platform of APC.
The PDP therefore called on the Inspector General of Police (IG) to immediately call Egbetokun to order.
