The public outrage as a result of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to President Goodluck Jonathan has continued to increase as the political opposition, APC, has reacted via an official statement warning President Jonathan to desist from acts that are against the tenets of democracy.
In a letter made available to Channels Television, the All Progressives Congress (APC) urged the Jonathan administration “not to take Nigeria back to the dreaded and calamitous days of the late General Sani Abacha, when perceived opponents of the government were targets of rampaging murderous gangs and Nigeria was turned to a pariah nation through unbridled human rights abuses.”
In the statement which was issued in Osogbo on Friday and signed by the Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party expressed concern over the allegations that the Jonathan administration is training snipers at the same facility where the Abacha killer squad was trained; talks of abuse and misuse of the military and other security apparatus for personal and political interest as well as the reported placing of 1,000 people under a ‘political watch-list’
The APC said that it is forced to take the allegations very serious because it emanated from former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in an open letter he wrote to his fellow party man, President Jonathan.
The statement also read that, ”All Nigerians must be worried by these weighty allegations, coming less than 15 years after the long-suffering people had collectively vowed ‘never again’ to a regime like Abacha’s that sent many innocent souls to their early graves and dispatched many citizens into forced exile for merely holding views that were opposed to that of the late dictator’s government.
”We are therefore compelled to call on President Jonathan to urgently address these allegations, which have already sent jitters down the spines of Nigerians, especially those who hold views that are diametrically opposed to the administration’s. The allegations cannot and must not be swept under the carpet, otherwise Nigerians will know who to hold responsible if perceived opponents of the administration come to any harm,” APC said.
