The Labour Party caucus in the House of Representatives has called for an investigation over the arrest of the Labour Party’s National Chairman, Julius Abure, by men of the Nigerian Police.
The caucus in a statement issued on Thursday and signed by its leader and member representing Ogbaru Federal Constituency, Anambra State, Victor Ogene, described the arrest as cruel, dehumanising and an abuse of democratic ethos.
According to Ogene, the timing of the arrest, on the eve of LP’s primary election for the forthcoming governorship election in the state, which the Abure-led National Working Committee is overseeing, exposes the development as a crudely scripted political charade that offends the sensibility of every true democrat and puts to question the integrity of the police in issues that involve the political class.
The caucus however called on the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun to investigate the underlying issues that have put the police in a bad light, by “Soiling the institution in the mud of desperate tussle for political powers, by those who see politics as a do or die affair.”
The statement reads in part, “There is no excuse for the manner the police conducted the ill-timed and misleading arrest of LP national chairman. If there was any need for the police to take Abure in, a simple invitation would have sufficed.
“The inexplicable dehumanization and brutalisation of Abure was uncalled for. Democracy ought to refine our security agents and bring out the best in them, rather than enhance their biases and prejudices in society.
“It is absolutely unlikely that the National Chairman of either the ruling All Progressives Congress or the People’s Democratic Party would suffer similar ignoble treatment in the hands of the Nigerian police.
“Indeed, what was the rationale for arresting a man of Abure’s standing in society in such a Gestapo manner, dragging him on the streets like a common felon, only to release him in the dead of the night?
“While we cannot prevent the nation’s security agencies from carrying out their constitutional assigned roles, we insist, as a caucus, that civility, decorum and due process must be their watchword, always.
“Consequently, we demand that the perpetrators of this show of shame must be brought to book if only to serve as a potent reminder to the government of the day, that the days of the jackboots are long over.”