The Kogi State chapter of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, has said obedience to a subsisting court order is responsible for the inability of its candidate in the 11 November governorship election, Alhaji Yakubu Muritala Ajaka to honour any invitation by the State Command of the Nigeria Police.
Kogi East Director General of the Ajaka/ Abenemi Campaign Council who shed light on the matter during a press briefing in Lokoja, the state capital on Tuesday, accused the state police command of being partisan and tolerating what it termed as “the serial persecution of SDP candidate and members by the state government.
“There is a subsisting court order preventing Ajaka from honouring invitations from the police and stopping the force from investigating him until that case is dispensed with. They are aware of this. Our candidate is a law-abiding citizen who will not violate a legitimate directive from a court just to satisfy the police. Our campaigns have been issue-based, and we have nothing to hide.”
Enape picked holes in the police handling of last weekend’s anarchy at an SDP rally in Kotonkarffe. Several people sustained injuries in the mayhem that claimed the life of one Khadijat Yahaya, a woman identified as a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
“The Commissioner of Police in his recent statement signed by the Police Public Relation Officer, William Aya, said he has set up an investigating panel to root out the cause of the political fight between the APC and our party, but again went ahead in the statement to indict our governorship candidate, Alhaji Muritala Ajaka as the conveyor of crises, he also accused him of moving about with thug.”
“This statement by the CP has clearly exposed him as being biased even before the investigative panel commenced their job. We want to categorically state that we have no confidence in the so-called panel constituted by the police commissioner.”
Enape debunked the claim that the SDP did not get security clearance for the rally. He displayed a copy of the letter with which the party sought the clearance. The Director of Security of the council, a retired Brigadier General, corroborated him.
Also speaking, Faruk Adejoh-Audu, Director of Communication and Spokesman of the council said Ajaka is the underdog who is being hunted by the powers that be.
“We reject the narratives the state government is pushing to the public always trying to paint Ajaka as the aggressor. Their ultimate plot is to set him up as a terrorist and clamp him to jail. We are talking about people who tag anyone who renounces their association as bandits or terrorists to make them fit for the Gulag. Alhaji Ajaka is a decent and humble politician who will not walk into their evil traps,” Adejoh-Audu said.
He called on the President Bola Tinubu-led federal government to show more than a cursory interest in the Kogi election by calling any overzealous state actors to order.
credit: PM News
