Tinubu warns FG against persecuting opposition leaders

Posted by admin Latest Politics Sunday, January 9th, 2011

A former governor of Lagos State and chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Sunday said the spate of ‘political persecution and threats’ against opponents of the Federal Government might destabilise the political process.

Tinubu, who spoke to journalists at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, however, said he was “not in any way frightened by the restlessness or threats in the course of my political struggle.”

The ACN had on Friday alleged that some politicians were planning to putting undue pressure on the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, to file spurious charges against Tinubu and send him to jail. The party said the unnamed politicians’ intention was to compromise tinubu’s security and expose his life in order to destroy his perceived rising political profile.

Tinubu, however, told newmen that he was not cowed by the alleged plot. He urged the Federal Government not to send security agents after its perceived opponents.

He said, “The government controls the entire security apparatus and institutions. They can deploy them but they better be careful about it at this stage of Nigeria’s political journey, if we truly want stability so that we don’t lose it all.

“I have my constitutional and fundamental rights for the pursuit of my happiness. I’m not in any way frightened by threats in the course of my political struggle to chart a new course for Nigeria. We are struggling to re-make Nigeria. If we are to truly remain a united country, the politics of the last 12 years is not the politics you can describe as ‘a patriotic zeal’ to rebuild the nation and put the nation first, above selfish interest.

“In Africa, the opposition party is a threat to be persecuted. I’m not new to that; it happened to me during the Abacha regime, it happened several times. You cannot manufacture crime where none exists or was committed. Therefore, the question of arrest or persecution is not a threat to me at all. I’ll not lose one minute’s sleep over the issue.”

Tinubu said government lacked the powers of the court, warning that any attempt to persecute political opponents would make it lose integrity. He said he had left his safety to God and promised to champion a crusade on a code of conduct for the coming elections.

He said the crusade would re-affirm the sanctity of life and the need to avoid violence during the elections among others.

-Punchwp_posts