Stop Terrorizing Your Own People--- Fani-Kayode To Buhari

 

  Former minister of aviation, Olufemi Fani-Kayode

Olufemi Fani-Kayode has called on Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari to refrain from terrorizing Nigerians.

The former minister of aviation in a statement released on Thursday said the attempt by the present administration to silence Nigerians with guns,

bullets and threats of arrest is unbelievable.

Fani-Kayode added that the effort put into storming homes of Nigerian and locking up relatives over baseless allegations and disinformation will not work, and should be directed towards the fight against insurgency.

“They do not have enough prisons to silence the voice of the Nigerian people or to break their spirit and no-one is intimidated by the government,s evil tactics and wicked ways. My message to President Buhari is simple and clear: stop terrorizing your own people and save your terror waves and gestapo tactics for Boko Haram,” Fani-Kayode said.

Lamenting on the recent ejection of a former director general of the State Security Service (SSS) Kayode Are from his official home in Lagos, the former minister said the treatment given to Nigerians by the present administration shows that the country is in a police state in which law and order has broken down and anything can happen.

Fani-Kayode said: “I am not sure what the issue is about but a situation where security men go to the home of a respected patriot like that and start shooting at him and his family for whatever reason is unacceptable and extremely dangerous.

“When you consider what is happening in Are’s home and marry with the shameful manner in which Colonel Sambo Dasuki, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, Governor Attahiru Bafawara, Alhaji Bashir Yuguda, Nnamdi Kanu, Godswill Orubebe, Bukola Saraki, Sule Lamido and others are being persecuted, threatened and demonised by the Federal Government it is clear that we are now in a police state in which law and order has broken down and in which anything can happen.

The former minister said the harassment is particularly worse on the ex-national security adviser Sambo Dasuki especially with the SSS preventing him from travelling abroad to receive treatment for an ailment he is suffering.

The Abuja home of Dasuki was barricaded and under siege by operatives of the SSS after a federal high court sitting in Abuja gave an order for the former NSA to travel abroad for the treatment of cancer.

“He was humiliated and subjected to mental and psychological torture for no just cause for that period of time even though the courts had told the SSS to let him travel out of the country for urgent medical attention. Instead of doing so after three tortuous weeks the SSS stormed his home, held everyone captive at gunpoint, grabbed him in front of his family, bundled him in a car and carried him to an unknown destination without any lawful authority or any arrest warrant,” he said.

He accused the government of an attempt to kill Dasuki by denying him the right to visit his doctors knowing that the former NSA is very sick.

He said the actions by the federal government on the former NSA is vindictive and a clear and a crude attempt to destroy, silence and kill an innocent man.

“If they want to prosecute him that is fair enough but at least they should ensure that he stays well and that he remains alive and that they don’t kill him. You cannot prosecute a dead body and you cannot charge a man to court after he is dead.

“I saw Dasuki on various occasions before his arrest and I assure you that he really is very ill. What harm could have been done by allowing him to see his doctor as the courts ordered? Does he not have the right to live and get medical treatment? Is it not clear that there is more to this than meets the eye? Why are people remaining silent when this is a clear case of vendetta, vengeance, wickedness, injustice and a crude attempt to destroy, silence and kill an innocent man? It is Dasuki today but it could be anyone else tomorrow,” he said.

Fani-Kayode further called on the Nigerian government to redress its steps in the dangerous game of harassing its citizens to avoid the wrath of God.

He said: “The truth is that the Buhari government is playing a dangerous game of Russian roulette with a loaded gun and if they are not careful it will soon explode. If they are not careful they will soon lose the confidence and trust of the people.”

“If they have any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Dasuki or anyone else then they should present it in court rather than on the pages of newspapers and if they wish to charge anyone they should go ahead and do so in a lawful, proper and civilized manner. The era of witch-hunting and demonising people and attempting to cower and subdue them into silence are long over,” he added.

He also said: “Those of us that oppose this government can never be intimidated or silenced because God is with us. If we could stand up against military dictatorship in the past, we can stand up against civilian dictatorship today. Anything outside of prosecuting people in a lawful manner and according to due process is barbaric and unacceptable and our President needs to be reminded that he is not running a military government but a democratic one.”