AC, CNPP Condemn Govt Action
By Muyiwa Adeyemi, Lagos and Alifa Daniel, Abuja
IN yet another official somersault by the President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua administration, two of the policemen guarding the Yola, Adamawa State residence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar have been posted back there.
But Abubakar appears not to be taking any chances as he has made private arrangements for his protection, according to his spokesman, Garba Shehu, yesterday.
Shehu said: "On Thursday, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar hired private guards whom he had deployed around himself and his houses.
"He said he would personally bear the cost of the private security arrangement since the police had become unreliable and, going by this experience, they (the redeployed policemen) can be withdrawn at any time without notice.
"I wish to state that two police guards were posted to his house last night (Thursday night) by the Command in Adamawa."
Meanwhile, the Action Congress (AC) and the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) have described the police withdrawal of Abubakar's security details as "an act of political vendetta."
In a statement yesterday, AC National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed said "the shameless action" was "a throwback to the days of political vindictiveness as a tool of governance under former President Olusegun Obasanjo."
"We had thought the administration of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, based on its avowed commitment to the rule of law and due process, will toe a different line from its predecessor, but how wrong we are!'' AC said.
The party said it had "no scintilla of doubt that the police action was a direct fallout of Atiku's criticism of the administration's electoral reform and absolute absence of governance."
Mohammed wrote: "As a popular Yoruba saying goes, if the baby dies a day after the witch's threat, it is clear that the witch is responsible for its (baby's) death! The savage and senseless attack launched against Atiku by the PDP machinery after his patriotic criticism of the electoral reform helped prepare the ground for this latest attempt to further humiliate him.
"The truth is that the Presidency, with nothing to show for two years in the saddle and with the people becoming disenchanted, is desperately seeking to silence the opposition as well as gag the dissidents within the ruling PDP. Welcome to another era of political vindictiveness!"
The AC said: "The tepid defence by the Presidency raises more questions than answers, especially in trying to distance President Yar'Adua from the so-called decision of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to withdraw police orderlies from those who do not deserve such services.
"Whether the President was present at the meeting of the FEC or not, he remains the chairman of the council and must take responsibility for its actions. Also, nowhere in the FEC decision was it stated that a former Vice President or President are among those undeserving of using police security.
"In any case, how many former Vice Presidents or Presidents have had their police orderlies withdrawn or trimmed as argued disingenuously by the PDP Police Force? Is President Yar'Adua aware that, by the withdrawal of the police security of a former VP under his watch, he is setting a dangerous precedent that may come back to hunt him after leaving office?"
The CNPP, through its Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu said the withdrawal of Abubakar's security aides was another "disturbing evidence of the growing intolerance of the PDP government for alternative opinions in the affairs of the country."
Okechukwu, in a statement in Abuja yesterday, said the police explanation was suspect because the action was taken against a background of Abubakar's "patriotic comments on the duplicity of the PDP government on the issue of electoral reforms and the deterioration of the living standards of Nigerians under the party's government."
He added: "Whereas the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties acknowledges the dire need for police reform, we condemn the barbaric and reckless manner in which the security aides of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar were withdrawn, thus exposing him to danger and avoidable harm.
"We note the African proverb which states that 'the witch cried in the night and the child dies in the morning, who does not know that the witch is responsible for the death of the child?"
"In other words, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar's patriotic and sincere comments on the dangerous slide of our democracy into a one-party dictatorship prompted the desperation of the Yar'Adua administration in the despotic and barbaric withdrawal of his security aides."
