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The Conference of
Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has condemned what it described as
serial arrests of perceived political opponents of President Goodluck
Jonathan, who is also the presidential candidate of the ruling Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP).

The spokesperson
for the CNPP, Osita Okechukwu said in Abuja on Sunday that it is
lamentable that agents of the federal government have been arresting
opponents of the PDP while they are unable to fish out those who
attempted to kill other members of the opposition.

It said that the
arrests and detention of the opposition figures have put to question
the cherished freedom of Nigerians and the often- pronounced commitment
of the president to free, fair and transparent polls next month.

The group listed
members of the opposition who have been arrested to include Umaru
Al-Mukura and Hassan Lawal of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) as
well as officials of the Northern Political Leaders Forum, Bello
Abdulkadir and Farouk Bibi Farouk.

The CNPP said it
believes that instead of detention, the accused should be charged to
court and their charges made known to the public, adding that Mr Farouk
has spent over 48 hours in detention without being charged to court.

“CNPP is yet to
locate from the security agencies the final report of the murder of
Bola Ige, Harry Marshal, Uche Ogbonna and other high profile murder or
the arrest of prominent politicians in the recent murder of Modu Gubio,
the gubernatorial candidate of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in
Borno State,” he said.

“Yet, so far, no
member or supporter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been
arrested, even those who spent $16 billion on power and N300 billion on
road construction without commensurate result and who are today leading
President Jonathan’s campaign.”

Free to criticise

The group, which
restated that democracy without freedom is a sham, also reminded Mr
Jonathan that the relative freedom achieved in the past years should
not be sacrificed on the alter of overzealous security operatives.

“President Jonathan should resist picking needless fights, therefore
all high profile murder should be fully investigated and the report
made public and all suspects should be charged to court without further
delay; as anything to the contrary gives wrong impression that the
security agencies are witch-hunting only the political enemies of Mr
President,” Mr Okechukwu said.