The National Leadership of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) in Bauchi States has raised the alarm over what it described as ‘persistent, illegal and unwarranted harassment’ of the leadership and members of the Party in Bauchi State by the Nigeria Police.
In a statement issued by its national chairman, Alhaji Falalu Bello, the party alleged that the Police Rapid Response Unit under the leadership of one SP Mohammed Baba Yola has persistently hounding its teeming members.
“On 14th February, 2019 the said SP Mohammed Baba Yola led a team of Police men to arrest, for no legitimate or legal reasons, twenty two (22) leading members of the PRP in Bauchi State, in the house of Alh Shehu Abdullahi, Wakilin Birni, who is also the Party ‘s candidate for a House of Representative seat in the election of 16th February 2019.
“This is an unwarranted harassment and intimidation which is obviously a crude attempt to scuttle the the efforts of the PRP to provide a credible and viable alternative to the good people of Bauchi State, a happening which remind us of what happened to our members in NEPU in the First Republic”, the statement said.
According to Alhaji Bello, the timing of the unwarranted harassment is also very telling, coming as it is doing on the eve of the National Assembly elections in which its candidate is a leading contestant.
“This cynical abuse of our security agencies to persecute political partisan agendas cannot and should not be condoned or tolerated in any civilized society and certainly not in 2019.
“We call on the Bauchi State Police Command to whom a petition has already been lodged by our State Legal Advisor to immediately rein in these aberrant and rogue officers and authorize the immediate unconditional release of our members”, it said.
The statement further said that failure to take the necessary remedial action immediately by the Bauchi Police Command would leave the Party with no other option than to consider all other legal and constitutional means of securing the rights and liberties of its members.
