Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has alleged
that there is a plot by the President Muhammadu
Buhari administration to detain him indefinitely based
on false charges.
Premium Times reports that Obasanjo in a
statement by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi,
on Friday, June 8, claimed that the government
was planning to use fake documents and
witnesses against him.
The former president said the plot against him
would unfold in two stages among which is to
cause the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) to reopen investigation into
the activities of his administration.
He alleged that the Buhari administration was
also planning to use fake documents and
witnesses against him.
Obasanjo linked the alleged plot against him to
the re-enactment of the Abacha era in which he
was detained on false charges.
He claimed that he had been informed that his
name was on the government’s watch list, and
that the security of his life cannot be guaranteed.
The former president, however, stated no
amount of campaign of calumny or orchestrated
plot against him would deter him from speaking
out.
The statement reads: " Since Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
declared in his State-of-the-Nation Special Statement on
January 23, 2018, the desperation to frustrate, intimidate
and blackmail him into abandoning his divine mandate to
protect the rights of the people to better life and living
continued unabated and has even taken a bizarre dimension
‘"Impeccable security sources have alleged Chief Obasanjo’s
name is on their Watch List and that the security of his life
cannot be guaranteed. According to these informants, many
of who are in the top echelon of the Nation’s security
management and close to the corridors of power, the
operatives are daily perfecting how to curtail the personal
liberties of the former President and hang a crime on him’.
"Ordinarily, we would not have dignified these reports with
a response but for the fact that many of these informants
are not known for flippant and frivolous talks. Secondly,
this Government has demonstrably exhibited apathy, and in
some cases, encouraged by its conduct, daily loss of lives
and property in many States of the country, the office
cannot be indifferent.
“We are currently in a nation where the Number Three
citizen is currently being harangued and the Number Four
citizen is facing similar threat within the same Government
they serve. There is a groundswell of our nationals that live
in fear that they could be hounded, harassed, or even killed
as the battle for 2019 takes this worrisome dimension.
“For Chief Obasanjo, this is a joke carried too far and being
someone who do not act on unofficial information, he had
cautioned all informants and adopted a wait-and-see
attitude to the propositions allegedly being contemplated to
cow, cage and embarrass him.
“The content of the alleged beastly designs, it was learnt are
two-fold for now. One, to seize his International Passport
and clamp him into detention indefinitely, in order to
prevent him from further expressing angst on the pervasive
mediocrity in the quality of governance, economic
management and in the protection of lives and property by
the Government.
“But, since that could expose the Government to a swath of
international condemnation, embarrassment and outrage, it
is said that another plot being hatched is to cause the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to re-
open investigation into the activities of Chief Obasanjo’s
administration using false witnesses and documents. This
will be a re-enactment of the Abacha era in which Chief
Obasanjo was one of the principal victims’.
‘The same EFCC that had conducted a clinical investigation
on the activities of Obasanjo in and out of Government, it
was said, would now be made to stand down the existing
report that gave Chief Obasanjo a clean bill of health on the
probes are now to get him indicted, fair or foul for possible
prosecution and persecution like it is being done to real and
perceived opponents, enemies and critics of this
Government’.
"Dissent is a fundamental principle on which liberal
democracy is predicated. A true democrat must be ready to
live with and accommodate dissent and opposition. While it
is regrettable how the Government has sunk in its
shameless desperation to cow opposition, a resort to
blackmail, despotism and Gestapo-tactics being employed
by the goons of this Government would not hold water. And
no government ever remains in power forever.
"For the record, Chief Obasanjo reiterates his readiness to
face probe again after that of the House of Representatives,
the Senate, the ICPC, and the EFCC, but before an
independent, objective and credible panel of enquiry to
account for his stewardship in Government and beyond’.
"Chief Obasanjo reiterates that he has taken a principled
position to ensure that the ship of the Nigerian State does
not capsize and he remains steadfast in his resolve to turn
the tide of maladministration, poor economic management
and rudderless governance model that has tore Nigerians
apart on account of religion and ethnicity which is a great
threat to our democracy’.
"We would like the Government and its supporters to
understand that no amount of campaign of calumny, no
matter how well contrived, orchestrated or marketed would
deter Chief Obasanjo from calling a spade by its name. Chief
Obasanjo is a patriot whose sole agenda is to ensure that
the country’s unity, progress and democracy are not
negotiated on the altar of incompetence and provincialism
and mediocrity.
"It is important to point out that Chief Obasanjo is one
former President and Head of State who has engaged the
current administration privately and in a bilateral manner
on several issues of direct interest to the government and
other matters of national concern. That channel of private
engagement remains open and continues.
"However, should there be the need for public engagement,
the right to free speech will always be exercised and
jealously guarded, again in the best interest of Nigeria and
the government.”
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari’s
personal assistant on social media, Lauretta
Onochie, has mocked former president, Olusegun
Obasanjo, sequel to the presidential honour
conferred on late MKO Abiola.
Onochie in a tweet on Thursday, June 7, pictured
Obasanjo writing another letter to the president
following the honour bestowed on MKO Abiola.
The former president has been criticised for
failing to honour late Chief Moshood Kashimawo
Abiola, the presumed winner of the June 12,
1993, presidential election in Nigeria.
However, President Buhari took Nigerians by
surprise when he declared that June 12 be
observed as Democracy Day in Nigeria as against
May 29.
that there is a plot by the President Muhammadu
Buhari administration to detain him indefinitely based
on false charges.
Premium Times reports that Obasanjo in a
statement by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi,
on Friday, June 8, claimed that the government
was planning to use fake documents and
witnesses against him.
The former president said the plot against him
would unfold in two stages among which is to
cause the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) to reopen investigation into
the activities of his administration.
He alleged that the Buhari administration was
also planning to use fake documents and
witnesses against him.
Obasanjo linked the alleged plot against him to
the re-enactment of the Abacha era in which he
was detained on false charges.
He claimed that he had been informed that his
name was on the government’s watch list, and
that the security of his life cannot be guaranteed.
The former president, however, stated no
amount of campaign of calumny or orchestrated
plot against him would deter him from speaking
out.
The statement reads: " Since Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
declared in his State-of-the-Nation Special Statement on
January 23, 2018, the desperation to frustrate, intimidate
and blackmail him into abandoning his divine mandate to
protect the rights of the people to better life and living
continued unabated and has even taken a bizarre dimension
‘"Impeccable security sources have alleged Chief Obasanjo’s
name is on their Watch List and that the security of his life
cannot be guaranteed. According to these informants, many
of who are in the top echelon of the Nation’s security
management and close to the corridors of power, the
operatives are daily perfecting how to curtail the personal
liberties of the former President and hang a crime on him’.
"Ordinarily, we would not have dignified these reports with
a response but for the fact that many of these informants
are not known for flippant and frivolous talks. Secondly,
this Government has demonstrably exhibited apathy, and in
some cases, encouraged by its conduct, daily loss of lives
and property in many States of the country, the office
cannot be indifferent.
“We are currently in a nation where the Number Three
citizen is currently being harangued and the Number Four
citizen is facing similar threat within the same Government
they serve. There is a groundswell of our nationals that live
in fear that they could be hounded, harassed, or even killed
as the battle for 2019 takes this worrisome dimension.
“For Chief Obasanjo, this is a joke carried too far and being
someone who do not act on unofficial information, he had
cautioned all informants and adopted a wait-and-see
attitude to the propositions allegedly being contemplated to
cow, cage and embarrass him.
“The content of the alleged beastly designs, it was learnt are
two-fold for now. One, to seize his International Passport
and clamp him into detention indefinitely, in order to
prevent him from further expressing angst on the pervasive
mediocrity in the quality of governance, economic
management and in the protection of lives and property by
the Government.
“But, since that could expose the Government to a swath of
international condemnation, embarrassment and outrage, it
is said that another plot being hatched is to cause the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to re-
open investigation into the activities of Chief Obasanjo’s
administration using false witnesses and documents. This
will be a re-enactment of the Abacha era in which Chief
Obasanjo was one of the principal victims’.
‘The same EFCC that had conducted a clinical investigation
on the activities of Obasanjo in and out of Government, it
was said, would now be made to stand down the existing
report that gave Chief Obasanjo a clean bill of health on the
probes are now to get him indicted, fair or foul for possible
prosecution and persecution like it is being done to real and
perceived opponents, enemies and critics of this
Government’.
"Dissent is a fundamental principle on which liberal
democracy is predicated. A true democrat must be ready to
live with and accommodate dissent and opposition. While it
is regrettable how the Government has sunk in its
shameless desperation to cow opposition, a resort to
blackmail, despotism and Gestapo-tactics being employed
by the goons of this Government would not hold water. And
no government ever remains in power forever.
"For the record, Chief Obasanjo reiterates his readiness to
face probe again after that of the House of Representatives,
the Senate, the ICPC, and the EFCC, but before an
independent, objective and credible panel of enquiry to
account for his stewardship in Government and beyond’.
"Chief Obasanjo reiterates that he has taken a principled
position to ensure that the ship of the Nigerian State does
not capsize and he remains steadfast in his resolve to turn
the tide of maladministration, poor economic management
and rudderless governance model that has tore Nigerians
apart on account of religion and ethnicity which is a great
threat to our democracy’.
"We would like the Government and its supporters to
understand that no amount of campaign of calumny, no
matter how well contrived, orchestrated or marketed would
deter Chief Obasanjo from calling a spade by its name. Chief
Obasanjo is a patriot whose sole agenda is to ensure that
the country’s unity, progress and democracy are not
negotiated on the altar of incompetence and provincialism
and mediocrity.
"It is important to point out that Chief Obasanjo is one
former President and Head of State who has engaged the
current administration privately and in a bilateral manner
on several issues of direct interest to the government and
other matters of national concern. That channel of private
engagement remains open and continues.
"However, should there be the need for public engagement,
the right to free speech will always be exercised and
jealously guarded, again in the best interest of Nigeria and
the government.”
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari’s
personal assistant on social media, Lauretta
Onochie, has mocked former president, Olusegun
Obasanjo, sequel to the presidential honour
conferred on late MKO Abiola.
Onochie in a tweet on Thursday, June 7, pictured
Obasanjo writing another letter to the president
following the honour bestowed on MKO Abiola.
The former president has been criticised for
failing to honour late Chief Moshood Kashimawo
Abiola, the presumed winner of the June 12,
1993, presidential election in Nigeria.
However, President Buhari took Nigerians by
surprise when he declared that June 12 be
observed as Democracy Day in Nigeria as against
May 29.
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