PRESS RELEASE
The People’s Democratic Party in Sokoto State, wishes to express alarm at the ongoing persecution of it’s members by the APC regime of Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto.
2. It has come to our notice that prominent members of the immediate past administration of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal are being hounded by an armed group on the orders of the State Governor, Ahmed Aliyu.
3. Targets and victims of the ongoing harassment and assault include former members of the State Executive Council, the PDP 2023 governorship candidate, Chief of Staff to the Governor and local government chairmen.
4. The offensives consist of daylight abductions at their residences and on the street and illegal detention with the police and later, incarceration at the government presidential lodge at Lodge Road Sokoto.
5. These government sanctioned infractions are being perpetrated by APC members with the active participation of gun totting members of the police force.
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6. The pretex for this repression is a committee set up by Ahmed Aliyu, purportedly for the review of the auction of government assets, which is actually an after thought cover that was created long after the virtual armed group had started operating.
7. We are aware that apart from attempts at seizure of vehicles duly auctioned to political appointees of the previous administration, the sole aim of the so-called committee is to witch-hunt and humiliate prominent members of the PDP in Sokoto State.
8. The PDP wishes to put on record that the policy of auctioning vehicles to political appointees started long before the administration of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, having in the most recent time, been implemented by the government of Attahiru Bafarawa in 2007 and continued by the succeeding administration of Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko.
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9. Through that policy, political appointees in succeeding administrations, many of whom are now in the APC, have benefitted from the monitization of official vehicles. They include:-
i) Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, when he left office as governor in 2015
ii) Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto, when he left the post of Commissioner in 2015 and resigned as Deputy Governor in 2019, when in fact, the vehicles were paid for him by the government of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, which he left due to partisan differences.
iii) Isa Sadiq Achida, currently disputed State APC Chairman, when he left the post of Commissioner in 2007.
10. It is on record that Wamakko, as State Governor in 2007 attempted to impound vehicles auctioned to his predecessor, Bafarawa but he was stopped by a court and there is no subsiquent court order on the matter that precedes that of 2007.
11. We wish to state that the so-called committee is illegal, having been merely announced via a press release and not backed by any government circular. Even if it was, the body is an administrative “Review Committee” that has only the jurisdiction to investigate and submit a report and recommendations to the government, after which the government could institute a judicial process on the issue.
12. The body cannot therefore, have any authority to arrest or seize the property in question, especially because even by its name and term of reference, it is supposed to deal with the matter of a government auction, rather than theft.
13. The committee in question has however, neither communicated formally to any of the affected individuals nor given them any formal chance for fair hearing.
14. Due to the above facts, the State PDP wishes to call on all concerned parties on this matter, especially the security agencies, to restrain themselves/their members from participating in these grossly unlawful abductions and virtual daylight robberies, in the interest of justice, fairness and peace.
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15. As an indication of our respect for the rule of law, the various victims of this institutional persecution have approached the court for redress, which the so-called committee has so far disregarded and are carrying on with their nefarious acts, even after being formally notified.
16. We wish to however, make it unequivocally clear that the Sokoto PDP will no longer fold it’s arms, as its members are being hounded, assaulted and roundly abused by an illegal militia under the guise of a state government committee.
17. Our members at all levels all over the state, will thus, henceforth, individually and collectively rise in defence of their safety, freedom and integrity, whenever the need arises.
SIGNED:
Hon Bello Mohammed Goronyo,
PDP Chairman, Sokoto State.
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