Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has accused the Buhari administration
of plotting to slam false charges on him, to pave the way for his indefinite
detention.
The former leader said the government was planning to use fake documents
and witnesses against him.
Mr Obasanjo said this in a statement by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, on
Friday.
The claim is the latest twist after weeks of bitter exchanges between the two
leaders, who fell apart after Mr Obasanjo accused Mr Buhari or ineptitude
and corruption, and advised him not to seek reelection.
Mr Buhari responded recently by accusing his predecessor of frittering away
$16 billion on phoney electricity projects. Mr Obasanjo hit back at the
“ignorant” claim.
Speaking via his aide on Friday, the former president said plans to silence
him were in two fold, among which is a plot to cause the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to reopen investigation into the
activities of his administration.
He said the Buhari administration had also perfected a plan to use fake
documents and witnesses against him. He said this will be a re-enactment of
the Abacha era in which he (Obasanjo) was detained on trumped up charges.
The presidency could not be immediately reached for comments.
The former president said he had been told that his name was on the
government’s “watch list”, and that the security of his life cannot be
guaranteed.
He however said no amount of campaign of calumny, no matter how well
contrived, orchestrated or marketed would deter him from speaking out.
“Since Chief Olusegun Obasanjo declared in his State-of-the-Nation Special
Statement on January 23, 2018, the desperation to frustrate, intimidate and
blackmail him into abandoning his divine mandate to protect the rights of the
people to better life and living continued unabated and has even taken a
bizarre dimension,” the statement said.
The statement said the first option to silence him was to seize his
international passport and clamp him into detention indefinitely, in order to
prevent him from further expressing angst on the “pervasive mediocrity in the
quality of governance, economic management and in the protection of lives
and property by the Government”.
Part of statement is below:
‘Impeccable security sources have alleged Chief Obasanjo’s name is on their
Watch List and that the security of his life cannot be guaranteed. According
to these informants, many of who are in the top echelon of the Nation’s
security management and close to the corridors of power, the operatives are
daily perfecting how to curtail the personal liberties of the former President
and hang a crime on him’.
‘Ordinarily, we would not have dignified these reports with a response but for
the fact that many of these informants are not known for flippant and
frivolous talks. Secondly, this Government has demonstrably exhibited apathy,
and in some cases, encouraged by its conduct, daily loss of lives and property
in many States of the country, the office cannot be indifferent.
“We are currently in a nation where the Number Three citizen is currently
being harangued and the Number Four citizen is facing similar threat within
the same Government they serve. There is a groundswell of our nationals
that live in fear that they could be hounded, harassed, maimed or even killed
as the battle for 2019 takes this worrisome dimension.
“For Chief Obasanjo, this is a joke carried too far and being someone who do
not act on unofficial information, he had cautioned all informants and
adopted a wait-and-see attitude to the bestial propositions allegedly being
contemplated to cow, cage and embarrass him.
“The content of the alleged beastly designs, it was learnt are two-fold for
now. One, to seize his International Passport and clamp him into detention
indefinitely, in order to prevent him from further expressing angst on the
pervasive mediocrity in the quality of governance, economic management and
in the protection of lives and property by the Government.
“But, since that could expose the Government to a swath of international
condemnation, embarrassment and outrage, it is said that another plot being
hatched is to cause the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
to re-open investigation into the activities of Chief Obasanjo’s administration
using false witnesses and documents. This will be a re-enactment of the
Abacha era in which Chief Obasanjo was one of the principal victims’.
‘The same EFCC that had conducted a clinical investigation on the activities
of Obasanjo in and out of Government, it was said, would now be made to
stand down the existing report that gave Chief Obasanjo a clean bill of health
on the probes are now to get him indicted, fair or foul for possible
prosecution and persecution like it is being done to real and perceived
opponents, enemies and critics of this Government’.
‘Dissent is a fundamental principle on which liberal democracy is predicated.
A true democrat must be ready to live with and accommodate dissent and
opposition. While it is regrettable how the Government has sunk in its
shameless desperation to cow opposition, a resort to blackmail, despotism
and Gestapo-tactics being employed by the goons of this Government would
not hold water. And no government ever remains in power forever.
‘For the record, Chief Obasanjo reiterates his readiness to face probe again
after that of the House of Representatives, the Senate, the ICPC, and the
EFCC, but before an independent, objective and credible panel of enquiry to
account for his stewardship in Government and beyond’.
‘Chief Obasanjo reiterates that he has taken a principled position to ensure
that the ship of the Nigerian State does not capsize and he remains steadfast
in his resolve to turn the tide of maladministration, poor economic
management and rudderless governance model that has tore Nigerians apart
on account of religion and ethnicity which is a great threat to our democracy’.
‘We would like the Government and its supporters to understand that no
amount of campaign of calumny, no matter how well contrived, orchestrated
or marketed would deter Chief Obasanjo from calling a spade by its name.
Chief Obasanjo is a patriot whose sole agenda is to ensure that the country’s
unity, progress and democracy are not negotiated on the altar of
incompetence and provincialism and mediocrity.
‘It is important to point out that Chief Obasanjo is one former President and
Head of State who has engaged the current administration privately and in a
bilateral manner on several issues of direct interest to the government and
other matters of national concern. That channel of private engagement
remains open and continues. However, should there be the need for public
engagement, the right to free speech will always be exercised and jealously
guarded, again in the best interest of Nigeria and the government.”
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