Jonathan plotting coup against democracy, says Tinubu

Former Governor of Lagos State Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has dubbed last  Sunday's police disruption of the rally organised by the Save Rivers Movement as a coup against democracy.

In a strongly-worded statement last night, leader,

Tinubu said the 'brutal disruption' of the rally by Commissioner of Police Mbu Joseph Mbu egged on by Jonathan's administration adds 'another dimension to the dangerous course this government has charted.'

Tinubu is the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which has benefitted generously from recent defections from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.

'The People of Rivers State and of the Save Rivers Movement did nothing wrong. What the police did was criminal. The violent and direct attack on Senator Magnus Abe is a frontal assault against democracy,' Tinubu said.

'The Jonathan government, which is supposed to protect the public order, now constitutes threats against the very thing they have pledged to uphold. The police have been unleashed on the people.'

The former governor, who popularly known by his traditional title of Asiwaju, said he was a loss as to why the police felt compelled to shoot and beat 'unarmed fellow citizens' whose only offence was the difference of their political affiliation to the Federal Government.

To him, the  events in Rivers showed a disdain for the law and its rule. He went further to condemn the Police for the role it played in the event and for making itself a tool of political oppression. 'The police no longer arrest, they are primed to shoot first and ask questions later.

'We are supposed to live in a constitutional democracy, but we are burdened with a Police Force that has now become an agent provocateur and a tool of political oppression. They are the partisan, strong-arm division of the Jonathan Presidency.'

In trying to put the situation in contest,  Asiwaju  said the Federal Government wanted to break down democratic institutions in the country. He said the presidency cannot take away the 'alienable rights' of Nigerians to associate with any political party of their choice.

He said, 'Sadly, a Presidency that was a major beneficiary of constitutional democracy conspires in Abuja to desecrate our political rights and mortgages our democracy.

'This government doles out money from the public treasury, not the private pockets of the Abuja despots to service hired mercenaries and political thugs. It is a deep tragedy that the public's money is being used to employ people and weapons to shoot at the public. This is the depth of political immorality.'

He accused the Jonathan's Presidency of willing to sacrifice the lives of countless Nigerians so that it can continue to lord it over Nigerians.

He added, 'If they could shoot a current Senator in broad daylight on a Sunday, imagine the mayhem they will set upon the average citizen seeking to advance his political rights. Their purpose is not to govern Nigeria but to break down the rule of law and our democratic institutions so that they may own Nigeria.

'The illegal conduct of the Police in Rivers should be called what it is; it is uniformed gangsters, a coup against democracy. The rights and the protection guaranteed to the Nigerian people should never be a function of the party they are affiliated with. Under the current Jonathan government, we move towards fascism.'

Tinubu called on the National Assembly to stop the impunity before it is too late. 'The National Assembly must rise to its statutory responsibility in defence of the people's rights and to exercise legislative oversight of an executive branch through the police and a Presidency that has lost all sense of democratic balance and fair play.

'If the Assembly does not rise at this junction, things will only worsen and at some point, they will be forced to confront the violent misbehaviour of a government intent on perpetuating itself.'