Mr. Antonio Guterres
Secretary General of the United Nations
Thru: The UN High Level Representative to Nigeria
U. N. Building, Plot 617/618, Diplomatic Drive
Central Business District
Abuja - FCT.
Dear sir,
PERSECUTION OF SARAKI AND ITS IMPLICATION FOR DEMOCRACY
I write to update you on the increasing political intolerance, terror and persecution being unleashed against perceived opponents of the present administration in Nigeria-led by President Muhammadu Buhari and to seek your urgent intervention to prevent an imminent breakdown of law and order capable of truncating the nation's democracy.
Recall that last week, I wrote a similar letter to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, on the need for the international community to save Nigeria from the current political terror against highly placed and innocent Nigerians as the country approaches the 2019 general elections which is about nine months away.
The political scenario is Nigeria and the highhandedness of the executive and its agents against law abiding Nigerians is becoming unbearable and unless something is done urgently to salvage the situation, our hard earned democracy will be plagued by disaster of unimaginable proportion. This call is premised on the old wise saying that a stitch in time, saves nine.
Today, the entire country is in a dilemma. While terrorists, insurgents and other criminal elements are having a field day in many parts of the country, citizens are also being framed-up and hounded by security agencies on the direct orders of the executive in order to retain power. The police that is supposed to protect the people is being used as an instrument of intimidation and brutality against law abiding citizens. I don't think I need to recount the ongoing ordeal of Senator Dino Melaye because his humiliation and persecution by the agents of state is known even to the little children. I don't also consider it necessary to refer to the frame-up of Senator Shehu Sani as having links with murder suspects in Kaduna. The incessant arrest of opposition PDP members would take an entire page of this write-up were I to chronicle them.
Only yesterday, the police, not tired of subterfuge came up with bizarre claims that robbery suspects arrested in connection with the Offa Bank robbery have implicated the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki. Recall that Saraki had two weeks ago raised an alarm about the directive from the Force Headquarters to transfer cultists and murder suspects arrested and being prosecuted in Ilorin, Kwara State, to Abuja, in a bid to tutor them to implicate him and the governor of the State, Abdulfatah Ahmed. Following the uproar, the police became silent for a while and have now decided to use the Offa robbery suspects to achieve their sinister goal against the President of the Senate.
I want you to note that the police on this occasion have not said anything new. What they wanted to achieve through the surreptitious transfer of arrested cultists and murder suspects from Ilorin to Abuja, they have now achieved through the Offa bank robbery suspects. Unfortunately, the President has not deemed it fit to call his stray agents to order in spite of the formal report on the issue made to him by a panel set up by the Senate following the alarm raised by Saraki on the impending fraudulent indictment about two weeks ago.
I dare say that the President of the Senate is a man of integrity and high moral standing. Apart from his noble parentage, he has held several positions of trust in the private and public sectors of the economy. Some being his directorship of a bank, special assistant to former President Olusegun Obasanjo on budget matters, two time Governor of Kwara State, Senator and now President of the Senate. He is also a major player in the global arena as a former President of Globe Nigeria and other international engagements. Over the years, his character has remained untainted and his reputation solid. Even under the last administration where he played a pivotal opposition role, all efforts to implicate him failed as several investigations raised against him found him blameless.
Unfortunately, the present government has been out to bring him down by all means since the inception of this administration. He is currently facing trial on allegation of false asset declaration. He was accused along side his deputy of forging the Senate rules - a case that later collapsed following the inability of the government to concoct plausible evidence against them in court. The recent efforts by government to get him at all cost has led to blatant lies, harassment, intimidation and blackmail to damage his reputation and paint him black before the eyes of right thinking members of the public. The goal of the government is to make political capital out his anticipated fall and reap bounteously from the sordid enterprise in the 2019 general elections.
Permit me to say that Saraki remains a credible and responsible Nigerian and my call is not to say that he is above the law. If there is any genuine reason that would warrant him to account for any of his actions, I believe he will gladly do so as a law abiding citizen. However, using gestapo tactics to blackmail and try to hang a criminal charge on him would be tantamount to wickedness, repression and dictatorship. If they have anything against him, let them follow due process according to law. I believe that as a man who respects and believes in the rule of law, Saraki is at anytime ready to defend himself before a court of competent jurisdiction just like he has been faithful in doing same before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT). There is a rising apprehension among the vast majority of Nigerians that if this atmosphere of intimidation being unleashed against the opposition in the country is allowed to continue unchecked, our democracy might suffer an incalculable damage and irreparable crash. God forbid!
My joy is that you are well aware of these evil antics playing out in Nigeria and their implication for peace, unity, order, good governance and the rule of law in the most populous black nation in the world. What I am not sure of is your reaction to the incessant human rights abuses, harassment of opposition members and the covert forceful persecution of well placed Nigerians in order to get them to support the reelection bid of President Buhari, against their will.
I therefore call on you and the leaders of the G-7 nations to intervene to prevent this looming catastrophe in Nigeria. I believe that prevention would be better than cure in this case because if highly placed Nigerians like the President of the Senate are being made to undergo these indignities, then there is no hope for democracy and rule of law which is about the preservation, welfare and protection of the common man. The country is dire political straits and we need your timely intervention to restore peace rule of law.
Yours sincerely,
Comrade Timi Frank
Deputy National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress
timifrank40@gmail.com
07033555555
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Politics