Former Nigerian vice
president and the presidential candidate of the opposition People’s Democratic
Party Atiku Abubakar said he and his staff were intimidated “by Operatives of the
Department of State Services (DSS)”
after
arriving at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja.
“I arrived to Abuja this morning to a search by agents
of the state, aimed at intimidating me and my staff,” Abubakar tweeted on
Sunday afternoon.
Abubakar arrived Abuja airport at 1 am Nigerian time
from vacation in Dubai.
He, however, did not state which of the “agents of
state” searched him and his staff.
Abubakar, formerly a member of the ruling party, is
the main challenger against President Muhammadu Buhari in Nigeria’s next
general election holding in February.
His campaign to get Nigeria “working again” has
resonated with a section of Nigerians who are disenchanted by Buhari’s handling
of the economy and allegations of corruption against a few of his aides.
Abubakar’s claim of intimidation will be seen by many
in Africa’s most populous as an attempt by the government to cow him.
The alleged intimidation came a few days after the
ruling All Progressives Congress called for the probation of his strategy
meeting organized with some of PDP leaders in Dubai.
“There is more to the
meeting that meets the eye. Nigeria has enough meeting/conference rooms, many
of which meet international standards,” the deputy spokesman of APC Yekini
Nabena said.
“It is therefore clear that the Dubai meeting was for
other sinister political purposes ahead of the 2019 general elections.”
“Our intelligence, anti-graft and security agencies
must be awake to its responsibility of investigating the Dubai meeting.
Cash-and-carry politicians must be prevented from moving illicit cash around to
induce voters and sponsor election violence and rigging.”
However, a former All Progressives Congress spokesman
Timi Frank, who also confirmed the harassment of the presidential candidate in
a statement on Sunday alleged that the search squad planned to plant “bags of
foreign currencies and other implicating things” in Abubakar’s aircraft on
arrival in Abuja.
He, however, warned President Muhammadu Buhari to
desist from his act of “intimidation” against the PDP presidential candidate.
“Due to information at our disposal, what I have been
saying is that the PDP presidential candidate is not safe under this
administration because the Buhari’s administration is deploying all manners of
devilish strategies to nail all the opposition leaders especially, Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar,” Frank said.
“We are using this medium to inform the international
community to also take note of how Buhari administration is intimidating the
opposition presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who has served Nigeria as
Vice President for eight years,” he added.
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