Invasion Of Akwa-Ibom House Of Assembly: Buhari, APC Trying To Forcefully Take Over States; Say PDP

PDP Reacts To Invasion Of Akwa-Ibom State House Of Assembly By Police

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the invasion of the house of assembly in Akwa Ibom State as a move by President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC), to forcefully take control of the state.

This is as Senate yesterday, ordered a thorough investigation into the alleged invasion of the state House of Assembly by officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in the early hours of the day.

PDP said Nigerians were all witnesses to volatile outbursts by the Buhari Campaign Organisation and APC leaders and their use of violent images and outright threats of war on Akwa Ibom State.

Its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, while addressing a press conference Wednesday in Abuja, said, “The PDP has invited you to intimate you and the nation of a looming danger, imminent violence and breakdown of law and order in Akwa Ibom State as well as other littoral states, following attempts by President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC to forcefully take over control of these states.

“Part of the plot is the forceful attempt to take over control of the Akwa Ibom State legislature, for which the presidency and the APC have been sponsoring the invasion of the House of Assembly complex and seeking ways to violently oust the duly elected leadership of the state assembly.”

Ologbondiyan recalled the outburst by the former governor of the state, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who vowed that the APC would take over the state the same way Hitler overran Poland, swearing, “War shall see Warsaw and Warsaw shall see war” in the state.

He said, “Given that this statement is the policy of the APC and the Buhari presidency against Akwa Ibom and other parts of our country, where they are not in control, the president, as chief security officer of our country, never issued a reprimand nor has Senator Akpabio been pulled in for questioning by security agencies.”

The party said recently, the National Chairman of the APC, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, who has been under fire over allegations of corruption, threatened and directly accused the erstwhile Akwa Ibom Commissioner of Police, Mr. John Abang, of refusing to carry out APC’s orders to provide security cover that would enable three legally sacked members of the 26-member legislature to effect a change of leadership.

Ologbondiyan added, “The PDP has information of how the APC hierarchy thereafter, ordered the Inspector General of Police, who in compliance, summarily redeployed Abang and replaced him with Mr. Hyelasinda Musa Kimo. He added that it was needless to say that Abang spent just one month as police commissioner and had to be removed for not carrying out APC’s directive.

Ologbondiyan noted, “Since the arrival of Kimo, there has been mounting tension and escalated siege mentality in Akwa Ibom State, particularly in the state legislature where thugs, backed by the police, have been invading the premises, disrupting legislative activities, harassing staff members and hindering them from performing their responsibilities.”

He said their plot was to forcibly take over the state or any other PDP-controlled state, warning that this would be firmly resisted by the people of those states and could lead to a crisis of unprecedented magnitude that has the capacity of truncating democracy in the country.

The party stated that Buhari and the APC should be ready to take full responsibility for any breakdown of law and order as direct consequences of the people’s resistance to their plot to forcefully take over control of Akwa Ibom or any of the PDP-controlled states.

On his part, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP in the state, Mr. Ini Ememobong, said the premeditated plan, which was unfolding in phases was aimed at ensuring that the security situation in the state portrayed the governor as being overwhelmed because of his gentlemanly disposition to issues of state and governance.

When that happens, he said, it would attract seemingly the attention of the federal government to come in aid of APC members, who are absolutely unable to win any election on the ground.

According to him, “The end point of that plan is to ensure that on the day of election, Akwa Ibom State as well as other states controlled by the PDP will be selected as flash points and kept for a separate day. Either as will be announced by the INEC or on the day of the first general ballot, that they will make it impossible for elections to hold there, so that the Ekiti example and Ekiti style of election can be brought, where 30,000 policemen can be brought from other parts of the country there.”