Peter Obi raises the alarm over arrest of Kaduna cleric who hosted him on Sunday (See pictures)
Presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Mr. Peter Obi, has said that the arrest by security agents of a religious leader, Sheikh Ahmad Tijjani Umar, who hosted him in Kaduna on Sunday, “underscores the deeply troubling state of our nation and our democracy, where freedom of speech and movement is increasingly threatened, and where citizens and perceived political opponents face harassment and unnecessary persecution.”
Mr. Obi, a chieftain of the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC), in a social media post, insisted that this state of affairs “cannot be allowed to continue,” stressing that “this country must defend freedom and free speech, which are the hallmarks of every democratic society.”
In the post, titled “Troubling Developments in Our Polity that Must Be Nipped in the Bud,” Obi, a former Governor of Anambra State, pointed out that “Suppression and intimidation of dissent can never stand in a democratic society, and this Nigerian government must understand this fact.”
He, therefore, called “on all those bent on undermining our already fragile democracy to please stop and apply the rule of law and tenets of democracy in dealing with citizens.”
