Progressive Govs Forum statement on police invasion of G7 meeting

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Yesterday, the DPO of Asokoro police division, CSP Nnanna Ama, invaded the meeting of the G7 governors at the Kano government lodge in Asokoro, Abuja. The Progressive Governors Forum have released a statement condemning the incident. Their statement below...

Nigerian Police: Now Armed Wing of PDP

The Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) hereby registers its dismay that for the second weekend in a row, officers of the Nigeria Police illegally stormed and disrupted a meeting by seven governors and other Nigerians going about their constitutionally guaranteed rights of association.

The police action is not only alarming but also demonstrates clearly that the force, instead of carrying out its constitutional responsibilities of maintaining peace and order in the society has become no more than the armed wing of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Coming barely a week after storming the Adamawa State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja to disrupt a lawful meeting of like-minded individuals, and despite public outcry at the tactics of the police, the Force, in clear violation of all rules of civility still went ahead to disrupt a G7 caucus meeting at the Kano State Governor’s Lodge on the 3^rd November, 2013, in Asokoro, Abuja.

If the Nigeria Police has not become the armed wing of the PDP, why should the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Asokoro Police Unit, CSP NnannaAma, burst into the venue and order the meeting stopped, threatening to mobilize troops to abort it if his order was not obeyed?

For a DPO to have the impudence to force his way into the meeting of perceived opponents of President Goodluck Jonathan to disrupt meeting of governors and members of the Senate and the House of Representatives that were duly elected by Nigerians, and also threaten them with arrest can only indicate that the orders must have come from the Presidency. But for the police to carry out what is evidently an illegal order reflects a new low in the history of the Nigerian police.

The PGF hereby condemns in totality the antics of the Nigeria police in breaking up peaceful meetings and harassing Nigerians, while also calling for a probe into the PDP – Nigeria Police relations. Is the police established and paid to serve all Nigerians or merely to serve the interests of the PDP? If the police have become the armed wing of the PDP, then what differentiates it from the terror tactics of those who seek to violently impose their political beliefs on others?

The PGF salutes the resilience, tenacity and patriotic commitments of the G7 Governors and all leaders of the New PDP calls on them to continue the fight to rescue Nigeria from the grip of a tiny clique that has cornered the political space in Nigeria and now regards the rights and commonwealth of Nigerians as disposable in their desperation to continue in office despite growing unrest in the polity occasioned by PDP’s politics of poverty exclusion. We wish to emphatically restate our resolve to join hands ad work with our colleagues in G7 and New PDP to ensure that the current regressive trend towards authoritarianism, increasing poverty, unemployment and incompetent leadership is arrested.

The PGF also restates its position that another four years of the PDP and the current administration will spell doom for Nigeria and its over 170 million people, thus our determination to rescue Nigeria and provide security and prosperity for Nigerians.