…Says attacks signpost APC is scared of opposition
The African Democratic Party (ADC) has decried what it described as incessant attacks on its members by the ruling All Progressive Congress APC.
Bolaji Abdullahi, the National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, on Sunday, in a statement on the party’s X handle, cited the attack at a Church in Alimosho local government in Lagos, where the ADC members had congregated to fellowship with its members.
The party leaders, including Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, were present to formally declare his membership of the opposition party.
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The party expressed outrage that political thugs desecrated a church by spilling blood in its vicinity, where a peaceful meeting was meant to hold, describing the incident as evidence of the ruling party’s desperation without boundaries.
The party which recalled a similar attack recently at the Inauguration of the Kaduna State branch, in Kaduna, wondered why the ruling party is using security agencies to intimidate and harass the party
According to Abdullahi, ” APC is really scared of the growing popularity of the ADC across the country, and it appears that the only response that they have is physical assaults and intimidation.
“Yesterday’s invasion of a Church, the venue of an ADC event in Alimosho, Lagos State, is a new low — showing that the APC respects nothing and holds nothing sacred, not even a Church.
” Under the APC, the Nigerian Police Force is being turned to the Gestapo wing of the ruling party.”
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The party, therefore, appealed to its members not to allow such acts of intimidation deter them from mobilising Nigerians to defeat the APC in 2027.
The party notes that its members will not succumb to intimidation and harassments, adding that the Constitution of Nigeria guarantees the freedom of association and the right to lawfully gather, in advancement of democracy.
The ADC warned that the Saturday invasion of the church venue in Lagos, while outrageous on its own, is “consistent with the growing authoritarian temper that the ruling party has demonstrated against the opposition in recent weeks, which, if not challenged on time, might get worse in the months ahead as the ruling party gets even more jittery with the widespread popularity of the ADC.
The ADC also recalled the recent declaration of “the APC as a terrorist organisation by a Canadian court and asserts that the only way the ruling party could recover whatever is left of its reputation globally is to stop the serial acts of suppressing the opposition party and allow democracy to thrive in Nigeria.
The party also calls on the Nigerian Police to remember that its primary loyalty is to the constitution and the Nigerian people, not the ruling party. It must, therefore, rise above partisan interests and not allow itself to be turned into the armed wing of the APC.
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“With this attack on a church, no one can predict how far this APC under President Tinubu is willing to go in its desperate quest to hold on to power at all costs. It started in Edo with a warning to ADC leaders not to visit the state, followed by Kogi, and then the shutting down of a private radio station in Niger, before it escalated to sponsored attacks on peaceful meetings in Kaduna, followed by attacks on convoys of ADC leaders in Kebbi.
“Now, APC-sponsored thugs have gone so far as to attack a church premises. If churches and other places of worship are no longer regarded as inviolable by the APC goons, how then does the party intend to prove to the world that it is not indeed a terrorist organisation? After all, attacking places of worship is what terrorists do.”
