ACN Adamawa Accuses Nyako Of Intimidation, Unlawful Arrests

EX-GOVERNOR MURTALA NYAKO

SAN FRANCISCO, January 27, (THEWILL) – The Adamawa State Chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN Thursday in a release protested against what to it described as the spate of arrests and detention of its members and those sympathetic to the party by the Admiral Murtala Nyako (Peoples Democratic Party, PDP) led state government.     
 
The statement signed by Yohanna Mathias, State Publicity Secretary, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Adamawa State reads:
 
Nyako’s Jackboot Democracy
 
The Adamawa State Chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN wishes to express its protest and displeasure over the spate of arrests and detention of its members and those with sympathy to our party.
 
It is obvious that these arrests of our members and sympathizers on claims of being in possession of a document or documents of which they are neither its authors or even of religious persuasion of its contents, is a testimony of the frustration of Governor Murtala Nyako’s government and its agents over their failure to secure the support of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to conduct the 2012 Governorship election in Adamawa, under curfew.
 
For political reasons, the Nyako government tried to overstretch the security situation in the state by putting in place a curfew regime that was manipulated at will by his government. This unhealthy situation for the conduct of free and fair election was correctly understood by INEC, which led to its commendable decision to twice postpone the governorship election in Adamawa State.
 
Adamawa State under the Nyako administration has gone down on record as the state government that has failed in its score card in providing relief to poverty of its people beyond belief, and in the same breathe woefully performed beyond redemption, its basic responsibility of providing security to its citizens to freely exercise their civic duty of voting in an election. Instead of being apologetic for the dismal failure in almost all sphere of human endeavour, the Nyako government is only active in imploring the instrumentalities of government to harass and intimidate our members and sympathizers.
 
In particular, the services of a section of the Nigeria Police Force, the State Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) is being used as a hunting dog to arrest and detain our people on matters that are unrelated to the mandate of the security outfit. Using SARS, under the command of its “Man Friday”, the Nyako government indiscriminately arrest and detains our members and sympathizers, all in a bid to gradually but systematically disintegrate our collective will and aspirations in this endeavour, but that can only make us resolute in our courage of convictions.
 
Predictably, in our petition of December, 2011 to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and the National Chairman of INEC, we drew their attention to the underhand activities of SARS under the command of one Supol Mohammed Ali, a terror-in-chief to the opposition parties in Adamawa State. We must state that Mohammed Ali is a ready tool in the hands of Nyako and a monumental danger to our democracy in Adamawa State. Meanwhile, the state had ignored deploying its resources to track down the perpetrators of the heinous Mubi and Yola attacks or the earlier robbery attacks within the state to hacking down members of the opposition.
 
This old fashioned and uncivilized way of engaging the opposition will not translate into any political capital for Governor Nyako and his cronies. The challenge before the Adamawa State government is how to provide security and guarantee the safety of lives and property of its citizens, as they keep a date with 4th February, 2012, to freely cast their vote in the twice proposed governorship election.
 
Meanwhile, we are calling on Governor Nyako to order for the immediate withdrawal of the state-sponsored thugs that have taken over the premises of the Adamawa State House of Assembly. For two months now, members of the State House of Assembly have been denied access to perform their legislative functions and this has led to the failure of the Nyako administration to present its 2012 budget proposals for legislative accent. This political recklessness is an impeachable offence which Nyako is trading into with its attendant consequences.