By Chuks Okocha
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday cautioned the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government against harassing foreign envoys and other members of the international community for speaking out against the infringement on the rights of Nigerians by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
The PDP position is predicated on the summoning of the envoys of the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, among others by the Buhari government, for standing on the side of Nigerians in criticiszing the unwarranted suspension of Twitter in Nigeria.
The party in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said that it was alarmed by the development which it said: “Is smacked of intolerance towards the international community as obtained in Idi Amin’s dictatorial Uganda of 1971 to 1979.”
According to the PDP, “Our party notes that there is no law or statute that prohibits foreign envoys from speaking out against clear violation of internationally enshrined freedom of expression and rights to social interactions as provided by Twitter and other social media platforms.
“In fact, the defence of such rights is a fundamental duty which envoys owe their host nations and the international community.”
The PDP, therefore, cautioned that any harassment or assault on foreign envoys place them at great risk as well as pitch the country against other members of the international community.
It said it’s instructive for the APC and the Buhari administration to note that given the current downturn of the national life under their misrule, Nigeria cannot afford to be declared a pariah nation.
Accordingly, the party said it is worried that the APC administration has been overheating the polity leading to the escalation of insecurity, killings, bloodletting and violence in the country.
It said: “Nigerians would recall that ahead of the 2019 general election, one of the leaders of the APC, the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, had threatened that some of the foreign election monitors would be returned to their countries in body bags.
“Our party, therefore, demands that the federal government should listen to the voice of reason, end its misrule and desist from infringing on the rights of Nigerians as being witnessed in the illegal and vexatious ban on Twitter.”
Already, the PDP said that it is perfecting processes for a legal action against the APC-led federal government’s suspension of Twitter and the directive to broadcasting stations to pull out of Twitter.
In the same vein, the party said: “Our party is considering a directive to all our wards, local governments and state structures to commence peaceful civil protests against the suspension of Twitter, the spate of insecurity in the country and the failures of the Buhari administration.”
