BUHARI IS MORE OF A DICTATOR THAN A DEMOCRAT *ATIKU LAMENTS AS HE STATES HIS SINS

The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and PDP national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, have described the order given to security agencies by President Muhammed Buhari to deal ruthlessly with would-be ballot box snatchers as unlawful and not a good statement from Mr. President.

 Both chieftain of PDP have urged the military and other security agencies not to obey the presidential order because it is unlawful.

The duo in their words insist that there are enough provisions in the nation’s laws for the arrest and prosecution of ballot box snatching and other electoral offences.

Speaking at a national caucus meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja on Monday, President Buhari had said: “Anybody who decides to snatch boxes or lead thugs to disturb the election, may be that would be the last unlawful action you would take.

“I have given the military and police the order to be ruthless. I am going to warn anybody who thinks he would lead a body of thugs in his locality to snatch boxes or to disturb the voting system; he would do it at the expense of his/her own life”.

But speaking Wednesday in Abuja, at the 84th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the PDP, the two opposition chieftains cautioned President Buhari not to let loose anarchy in the country during the upcoming elections.

Atiku said it’s shocking for any head of state to utter such words in a democracy and that Nigerians should not accept it from President Buhari, adding “We have fought more ruthless dictators than himself”.

According to him, Buhari’s actions and utterances since he mounted the saddle in 2015 have been painful reminders of the era of military dictatorship.

“General Buhari has consistently violated the constitution; he failed to uphold the rule of law. Recent instances include the unconstitutional suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria a day before he was supposed to inaugurate the committee for the election tribunals that will decided any appeals or whether our elections were subject to manipulation, thereby crossing the immutable line that divides the executive from the judiciary.

“When you people are talking about democracy, I have always said that Gen. Muhammadu Buhari is not a democrat, he has never been a democrat. We started the fight to drive the military, he was never there, he never participated.

“You can see that he just wore the garb of democracy so that he can come back to power and do whatever he is doing. So Gen Buhari is not a democrat, he doesn’t believe in democracy, he is a lip service, he is more of a power monger than a democrat.

“A precondition for free, fair and credible election is that the people are able to freely vote the candidate of their choice. You owe it to the people to let them give their verdict in the same way that you were elected. If you do so and if you win, then the people will commend you for it. Otherwise, history will condemn you for it. But before history does that, we will condemn you for it,” Atiku added.

Secondus said Nigerians were still in shock as a result of the order, stressing that the same President who has been “off duty” since the needless bloodletting in various parts of the country over the years, could give what amounted to shoot-on-sight orders against ballot snatching.

Secondus said, “By that directive, ordering soldiers to kill our citizens without recourse to the law and with impunity, the President has unwittingly given license to APC leaders to carry military personnel on Saturday.