Chuks Okocha in Abuja

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has faulted the Kaduna State Police Command over its handling of weekend’s violent disruption of the party’s inauguration where party members were attacked by armed thugs. 

In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party accused the Kaduna State Police Command of attempting to criminalise legitimate political activity while failing to protect citizens, insisting that the venue had been duly pre-booked and that security agencies must not be used to intimidate the opposition.

The party said that when the Kaduna State Police Command issued its press release on the unfortunate disruption of the ADC meeting in Kaduna State, where the party leaders and members were attacked by armed thugs, it expected reassurance that justice would be done and that those responsible for the violence would be held to account. 

Instead, the ADC ‘’what we read was a troubling attempt to criminalize legitimate political activity, pre-judge individuals, and cast the opposition in the light of lawlessness.’’

 According to Abdullahi, ‘’First, the Police statement rushed to link the ADC to “political gangsters” even while stating that it has commenced an extensive investigation into the alleged political violence. This contradiction exposes the statement as more political than professional. Investigations should establish facts before conclusions are drawn; when police act as judge and jury, it undermines both justice and democracy.

‘’Second, the claim by the Kaduna police that our gathering was “unauthorised” is dangerously presumptuous. In a democracy, the right to assemble peacefully is guaranteed by the Constitution, not a State Police Command. A police notification is a matter of procedure and often courtesy, not a licence to exercise a right that has been granted by the constitution. To suggest otherwise is to turn citizens’ freedoms into privileges at the mercy of the state.

‘’Third, the threat that hotels and event centres will be “held liable” if they host political meetings without police approval is equally ludicrous. It amounts to intimidation of private citizens and businesses, effectively denying opposition parties access to spaces for lawful activity. No democracy thrives where access to public or private venues is determined by the whims of security agencies under any guise. 

‘’Finally, the blanket suspension of “unauthorised gatherings” as declared by the Kaduna police command in its statement, is clear overreach. Security agencies are to protect lawful assemblies, not proscribe them. To arrogate to themselves the power to decide which political meetings may hold is to hand the police veto authority over democracy itself,’’ the spokesman of the ADC said.

In this regard, the coalition party said that ‘’the ADC rejects all attempts by the Kaduna State Police Command to drag our name into acts of violence that we neither organized nor condone. Our party remains committed to peaceful, issue-based politics. We therefore demand that the Kaduna State Police Command immediately revisit its statement, conduct a transparent investigation, and explain why its officers allegedly abandoned their duty when our leaders and members came under attack.

‘’Democracy is not a crime. Selective policing is. Still, we in the ADC will not be intimidated into silence. We also call on all citizens to reject the growing acts of violence and intimidation against opposition parties by the ruling APC at all levels,” he said.

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