The Social Democratic Party (SDP) leadership raised the alarm on Friday over the alleged massive attacks on its members who appeared as witnesses before the ongoing Kogi State Gubernatorial Election Tribunal, held at the National Judiciary Institute in Abuja.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja regarding the incident, the National Chairman of the Party, Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam, urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the heads of the nation’s security forces to intervene in the ugly development in the national interest.
According to him, “We wish to formally report that immediately after the testimonies at the Petition Tribunal, which sat on March 28, 2024, there were sporadic attacks on the lives and properties of members who testified for the SDP, as well as attacks on their families and shops in Kogi State.
“On March 28, 2024, the following attacks on SDP members were recorded in Kogi State: a) The house and shops of Mr. Galadima were vandalized, and wares were brought out and set on fire at Oziokutu. b) The properties of Hon. Agomi were brought out of his house and set on fire. c) The items in the Pharmacy of Hon. Mumuni Time at Idoji-Inike junction were vandalized, destroyed, and burnt. d) The family house of Hon. Mustapha Otinawu at Ahogede, Idozumi, was attacked and destroyed. e) The rented apartment of Hon. Agomi Yusuf at Okengwe was attacked, and his properties were carted outside and burnt. f) The house of Mr. Dahiru Orietesu at Orietesu was attacked, properties were brought out and destroyed. His pregnant wife was badly beaten, and she is still hospitalized at the time of this report.
“It is again with a great sense of responsibility, and now with great sadness, that we wish to bring to the attention of the Inspector General of Police of the Federation the blatant threats to peace and security in Kogi State, which have now escalated, and to remind the IGP of our letter to himself dated February 26, 2024, titled ‘BLATANT THREATS TO PEACE AND SECURITY IN KOGI STATE CAN ESCALATE.’ Sadly, the situation in Kogi State has indeed escalated.
“In our letter under reference, we called the attention of the IGP to the emergent threats to peace and security in Kogi State, which portend significant dangers of national dimensions, and requested your good self for swift and effective intervention to restore law and order and security to avert unwarranted escalation within the State or to national disaster.
“We reported that a group of persons have carried out attacks on SDP members and incited the public to attack them. The group also threatened the safety and lives of our party officials publicly, including through radio announcements, warning them to take heed at the risk of their lives and those of their families.
“The group has been daring and brazen about its readiness to attack to the level that it took its heinous and dastardly campaign to a Government-licensed Radio station, Jatto 102.7 FM Radio Station, to threaten SDP members, warning them not to testify in the election petition tribunal, or they will deal with them and their family members.
“We reminded the IGP that a group of people had unleashed so much terror in Kogi State before and after the November 2023 election, resulting in the destruction of the SDP Gubernatorial Secretariat in Lokoja in July 2023 and the burning down of the same Secretariat in August 2023, as well as causing so much mayhem and reckless attacks, including on the Election Petition Tribunal that the Federal Government had to shift the sitting of the Tribunal from Lokoja in Kogi State to Abuja.
“We reported that despite the shifting of the Tribunal operations to Abuja, the group has continued to use quasi-security bodies to unleash havoc and violence in Kogi State with deadly focus on members of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
“On February 26, 2024, we urged the IGP to note that there are proven threats to the safety and security of our Tribunal witnesses and requested the intervention of the Police to investigate and curb the unlawful and illegal activities and other illegal quasi-security groups in Kogi State and bring them to justice and to call to order the owners and management of Jatto 102.7 FM Radio and to stop them from further making obnoxious announcements and inciting the public to violence.
“On March 28, 2024, one month later, we have noted with great sadness that the threats to peace and security in Kogi State have indeed escalated.
“As a responsive and responsible political party, we hereby wish to humbly inform the IGP that the threats to the safety and security of our members in Kogi State are indeed real and dangerous. We respectfully enjoin the IGP to please intervene before the situation spirals out of control.
“We have concluded plans to book a physical appointment with the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to present our complaints before him again for further action.
“The last petition we wrote to him in February this year about our intelligence report on the planned attacks on our members, which we still have the acknowledgment copy, he directed the Kogi State Commissioner of Police to investigate our case, and the Commissioner directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) (Political) to handle the matter.
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“Rather than doing the needful immediately, the DCP wrote to invite the Party’s National Secretary to come down to Lokoja, Kogi State, to substantiate our claim.
“At this juncture, we are calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to act fast and do the needful on the Kogi State insecurity matter so as not to set the State on fire. We have been calling for order; we knew what we went through, and now the case is at the Tribunal for adjudication; they should allow the judiciary to complete its assignment and should stop harassing the witnesses.”
Both the National Secretary of the Party and its National Legal Adviser, Dr. Olu Agunloye and Mr. Aderemi Abimbola, also displayed various photo evidence of the attacks against Party members before the media.
