Festus KeyamoThe spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo (SAN), has alerted the State Security Services (SSS) of moves by the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed to truncate the democracy in the country.
In a petition to the security outfit, which he said is personal, Ktyamo said that comments by the two personalities after the election in the country on February 25 and March 18, amounted to what he called “incendiary” and capable of causing rebellion.
Keyamo, who is currently the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, in the petition addressed to the Director General of the SSS, recalled that Datti Baba-Ahmed had recently made a comment on himself of himself and Peter Obi on Channels TV on Wednesday, March 22, “wherein he threatened that if the President-Elect is sworn in on May 29th, 2023, it would ‘signal the end of democracy’.
“The latest of such are the comments made by Datti Baba-Ahmed on behalf of himself and Mr. Peter Obi on Channels TV on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, wherein he threatened that if the President-Elect is sworn in on May 29th, 2023, it would ‘signal the end of democracy’.
“Posing as an accuser, a judge and a jury all by himself, he unilaterally declared the duly elected President-elect as ‘unconstitutional’ and, in a subliminal manner, threatened mayhem if the President-Elect is sworn in on May 29th, 2023.
“I also have it on good authority that Mr. Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed have camped some youths in a popular hotel in Abuja with the sole aim of instructing them to push out inciting messages everyday on social media in order to cause panic and fear within the federation and to incite people to riot and social unrest.
“It is noteworthy that Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed have submitted Elections Petitions to the courts for adjudication, but their conducts and utterances amount to a subversion of the processes they have instituted in court and a subversion of our Constitution and the laid-down processes for addressing disputes and grievances.
“These conduct and utterances are a build-up to something more sinister and it is important you rein them in now!
“In the circumstance, I submit this petition in my personal capacity as a patriotic Nigerian to invite/arrest, interrogate and after investigation, if necessary, charge both individuals to court for their conduct which amounts to incitement and treasonable felony”.
Keyamo said that in a post-election period such as the country had gone through, there is a need to soothe frayed nerves, lower the temperature and begin the healing process.
“The President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu issued a statement to this effect a few days ago.
“However, it appears the President and Vice-Presidential Candidates of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed are not prepared to toe this conciliatory path for the sake of peace and national cohesion, whilst exercising their rights to pursue duly laid down constitutional means of addressing their grievances.”
He said that Obi and Datti have been gojng around media houses, making comments and claims not just within the boundaries of exercising their rights to freedom of speech and the freedom to air their grievances publicly, but they have since crossed the line to call for the outright truncation of democracy by insisting on the adoption of other processes outside the contemplation of our Constitution.
“In some cases, their privies have even called for the establishment of an Interim Government.
Keyamo submitted his petition barely two days after Peter Obi filed his petition to challenge the victory of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25 election.
