Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday raised the alarm that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration was plotting to slam false charges on him through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to pave way for his indefinite detention.
He also accused the government of putting his name on a watch list, alleging that information reaching him from the ‘top security echelon’ indicated that his safety could no longer be guaranteed.
The former President noted that the current administration wanted to blackmail him into abandoning his divine mandate to protect the rights of Nigerians to better life.
Obasanjo made these allegations among others in a statement signed and released on his behalf by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, on Friday in Abeokuta.
He further revealed that he was reliably informed that, daily, plans were being perfected to curtail his liberty either through the seizure of his passport, or hounding him with the anti-graft agency.
He noted that the nation’s number three citizen was currently being harassed and the number four citizen was equally facing similar threat within the same government they serve.
The statement read, “Since Chief Olusegun Obasanjo declared in his State-of-the-Nation special statement on January 23, 2018, the desperation to frustrate, intimidate and blackmail him into abandoning his divine mandate to protect the rights of the people to better life and living continued unabated and has even taken a bizarre dimension.
“Impeccable security sources have alleged Chief Obasanjo’s name is on their watch list and that the security of his life cannot be guaranteed.
“According to these informants, many of who are in the top echelon of the nation’s security management and close to the corridors of power, the operatives are daily perfecting how to curtail the personal liberties of the former President and hang a crime on him.
“Ordinarily, we would not have dignified these reports with a response but for the fact that many of these informants are not known for flippant and frivolous talks.
“This government has demonstrably exhibited apathy, and in some cases, encouraged by its conduct, daily loss of lives and property in many states of the country.
“The content of the alleged beastly designs, it was learnt are two-fold for now. One, to seize his passport and clamp him into detention indefinitely, in order to prevent him from further expressing angst on the pervasive mediocrity in the quality of governance, economic management and in the protection of lives and property by the government.
“But, since that could expose the government to a swath of international condemnation, embarrassment and outrage, it is said that another plot being hatched is to cause the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to re-open investigation into the activities of Chief Obasanjo’s administration using false witnesses and documents. This will be a re-enactment of the Abacha era in which Chief Obasanjo was one of the principal victims.”
Obasanjo reiterated his resolve to face probe anytime, but before an independent, objective and credible panel of enquiry.
While further condemning the ugly turn of events, Obasanjo noted that dissent was a fundamental principle on which liberal democracy was predicated.
The statement further read, “A true democrat must be ready to live with and accommodate dissent and opposition.
“While it is regrettable how the government has sunk in its shameless desperation to cow opposition, a resort to blackmail, despotism and Gestapo-tactics being employed by the goons of this government would not hold water. And no government ever remains in power forever.
Obasanjo said he would not be deterred by the alleged threats of intimidation and blackmail, adding that he was committed to ensuring that the socioeconomic conditions of Nigerians improved.
