APC candidate Shidi cries out to Buhari, Alkali over alleged rights abuses

Ahead of the 2023 poll, All Progressives Candidate for the Taraba South Senatorial District of Mr Danjuma Shidi has cried out to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector General of Police Usman Alkali to wade into the continued harassment and intimidation of the party supporters in the state.

Shidi who addressed reporters at the National Assembly complex at the weekend in Abuja claimed that supporters of the APC were being clamped into detention by agents of the ruling peoples’ democratic party (PDP) on daily basis over trumped-up charges.

Shidi who represents the Wukari/Ibi Federal Constituency of Taraba State in the House of Representatives said it behoves President Buhari and the IGP to wade into the issue to save democracy in the state ahead of the 2023 poll.

He alleged that the campaign director-general of his campaign organisation, Mr Sumaila Yakubu and several other party stalwarts in support of the APC governorship candidate, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha who were brutally abducted by state security agents on trumped-up charges of inciting members of the public have been locked up in the prison in spite efforts to secure their bail in line with laid down rules and regulations.

Shiddi particularly accused Governor Dairus Isyaku who is also the PDP senatorial candidate for Taraba south Senatorial district of masterminding the dastard act out of fear that both he and the PDP could lose out in the 2023 poll.

He noted: “The issue is that the Governor is afraid. He has seen that he is going to lose the election. He has tried all other ways but he couldn’t succeed. Now he wants to use the brute method by harassing and intimidating the opposition by instilling fear in our people thinking that he would have his way.

“But we are ready for him. As we speak the director general of my campaign organisation has been incarcerated in prison. Two days ago two of the coordinators for Senator Bwacha who is our governorship candidate and my own coordinator and my own party chairman in my local government were taken to court and from there straight to prison.

” As I speak to you now they are in prison custody for the mere fact that they reported to the police a plan by some PDP stalwarts to attack us. And the police didn’t arrest those people who now investigated the matter but ended up inviting those that wrote the petition, took them to court and sent them straight to prison without even a proper trial.

” They offered to grant them bail if they produce a permanent secretary who is a civil servant in the state as surety. You know that no permanent secretary would do that in a PDP-controlled state. When an attempt was made to reach out to the judge, the judge claimed that he had travelled to the village and won’t return till Monday.

“That means that they would keep them there. They have abused their fundamental human rights, freedom and liberty. That’s why we say democracy is under threat in Taraba state because he does not have patience for the opposition. The government of the day is using state resources and power to harass and intimidate our law-abiding citizens, particularly members of the APC. This is because the APC has become his nightmare.”