Abuja Imam Sacking: PDP Condemns Attack on Free Speech, Rebukes APC
POLITICS DIGEST- The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned the clampdown on popular Muslim Cleric, Sheikh Muhammad Nuru Khalid, “for speaking truth to power on the failure and now exposed refusal by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration to decisively defend Nigerians from terrorists signals a dangerous trend of fascism in our country.”
The erstwhile Imam of Apo Legislative Quarters’ Mosque was suspended and later sacked by the Mosque Committee for criticising government’s preference for elections at the expense of security challenges facing the country.
The PDP said while it refrains from delving into religious issues, it warned the APC to note that, “suppressing the concerns of citizens and resorting to fascist measures where constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression is being brazenly assaulted is capable of triggering widespread social restiveness and escalating the already tensed situation in the country.”
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“This APC’s recourse to an onslaught on the voice of citizens as witnessed in the clampdown on religious leaders, the opposition, the civil society and the media indicates an unacceptable descent to tyranny and imposition of a siege mentality to suppress dissenting voices in the face of APC’s manifest failure.
“It is often said that when propaganda, falsehood and lies have been promoted, elevated and institutionalized by a government (like the APC has done) every truth by the citizens is viewed as a rebellion, which the government feels obliged to crush by all means.
“This is the character of fascism which is gradually and steadily creeping into our country under the APC and now deoxygenating our citizen’s exercise of their freedom of expression as guaranteed under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
“The clampdown on Sheikh Khalid is reminiscent of the days of the obnoxious Military Decree 4 of 1984, under General Muhammadu Buhari, as Head of State, when telling the truth was categorized as a crime. Those days are scaringly creeping back!” the statement by PDP spokesman, Debo Ologunagba, read in part.
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