The National Democratic Front, NDF, has called for immediate arrest and arraignment elder statesman and leader of pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, over his recent comment on the just-concluded presidential election.
Adebanjo had described the 2019 presidential election won by President Muhammadu Buhari as a joke, saying that he could not recognise the APC candidate as president-elect.
NDF through its Secretary General, Dr Bolaji Abdulkadirm, in a statement said Adebanjo’s comment amounts to treason and utterances capable of plunging the country into another civil war.
The statement further called on security agencies to immediately act to curtail such excesses by immediately arresting Adebanjo so as to serve as deterrent to others.
Statement reads below.
Adebanjo premised his treasonous call, published by the Daily Independent, on the handling of the recently held Presidential Election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which is merely a cover to justify the mayhem he and his co-travellers are planning in order to illegitimately and forcefully overthrow the government in violation of the Constitution.
We note, sadly, that while Adebanjo claims the 2019 election was unacceptable to him he is equally disparaging the 2015 election from which the current mandate of President Buhari emanates. Even if he genuinely has issues with the recent elections, there are provisions for aggrieved losers to pursue judicial challenge, which in this case is even Atiku Abubakar and other candidates but not Adebanjo.
There is no problem with Adebanjo or any other Nigerians privately nursing grudges against the president-elect or choosing to avoid attending same events with him, bidding for contracts under his government or having any interactions with the occupier of the nation’s highest office on account of political differences. But voicing out such disavowal and causing same to be published is clearly a call to insurrection, one that must not be taken lightly.
Security agencies must immediately act to curtail such excesses by immediately arresting Adebanjo and anyone that instructed him to make such statement with a view to sending out the message that the laws of Nigeria are not to be toyed with. This call became necessary because of the series of plots by people like Adebanjo (and those who pay him) to overthrow the government of President Buhari, which were uncovered by the Federal Government prior to the elections.
The call by Adebanjo is no mistake but part of the larger plot by the opposition to cause widespread insurrection against the government after it became clear to them that they can never return to power through popular votes owing to the years of misrule they inflicted on Nigerians. It is also the opposition testing the waters to see how much disruption they can get away with causing before the May 29 inauguration date.
NDF urges the international community to note Adebanjo’s statement in relation to the extant laws in Nigeria. International interventions must be mindful of this factors when they are invited to save Adebanjo or any other opposition element from the consequences of treasonable offence since no country allows its Constitution to be taken for granted.
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