Abuja, NIGERIA – Festus Keyamo, spokesperson of the APC presidential campaign council, has submitted a petition to the Department of State Services (DSS) over inciting comments capable of disrupting law and order in the country.
Keyamo filed the petition against Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), and Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, his running mate, on Thursday.
In the petition, Keyamo said while Obi and Baba-Ahmed would claim to be exercising their freedom of speech, their post-election comments are capable of causing an insurrection against the Nigerian government and the president-elect.
“I write this petition with the full realisation that in a post-election period such as this, there is a need to soothe frayed nerves, lower the temperature and begin the healing process. The President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has issued a statement to this effect a few days ago. However, it appears the President and Vice-Presidential Candidates of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed are not prepared to toe this conciliatory path for the sake of peace and national cohesion, whilst exercising their rights to pursue duly laid down constitutional means of addressing their grievances,” the petition reads.
“In this regard, since the declaration of the Presidential election results, they have been hopping from one media house to the other making incendiary comments and claims about the declaration of the president-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“These comments and claims are made, not just within the boundaries of exercising their rights to freedom of speech and the freedom to air their grievances publicly, but they have since crossed the line to call for the outright truncation of democracy by insisting on the adoption of other processes outside the contemplation of our Constitution. In some cases, their privies have even called for the establishment of an interim government.
“The latest of such are the comments made by Datti Baba-Ahmed on behalf of himself and Mr. Peter Obi on Channels TV on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, wherein he threatened that if the President-Elect is sworn in on May 29th, 2023, it would “signal the end of democracy”. Posing as an accuser, a judge, and a jury all by himself, he unilaterally declared the duly elected President-elect as “unconstitutional” and, in a subliminal manner, threatened mayhem if the President-Elect is sworn in on May 29th, 2023.”
Keyamo also alleged that the LP flagbearers are running a group of syndicates mandated to push inciting messages to cause social unrest.
He asked the service to arrest, interrogate, and investigate Obi and Baba-Ahmed, and charge them in court for “their conduct which amount to incitement and treasonable felony”.
“I also have it on good authority that Mr. Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed have camped some youths in a popular hotel in Abuja with the sole aim of instructing them to push out inciting messages everyday on social media in order to cause panic and fear within the federation and to incite people to riot and social unrest.
“It is noteworthy that Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed have submitted Elections Petitions to the courts for adjudication, but their conducts and utterances amount to a subversion of the processes they have instituted in court and a subversion of our Constitution and the laid-down processes for addressing disputes and grievances. These conducts and utterances are a build-up to something more sinister and it is important you rein them in now!
“In the circumstance, I submit this petition in my personal capacity as a patriotic Nigerian to invite/arrest, interrogate and after investigation, if necessary, charge both individuals to court for their conduct which amount to incitement and treasonable felony.
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