by Isi Esene
A detachment of policemen reportedly laid siege on the residence of the Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Organization, Mallam Garba Shehu.
Reports say the police detachment, comprising of four police vehicles and a van, arrived Shehu’s residence located at the NNPC Quarters, Area 11, Abuja around 3am on Thursday. His home was said to have been surrounded bythe vehicles with the van stationed close to his driveway.
According to a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the All Progressives Congress (APC) said the siege on the Shehu’s residence made it impossible for him to even go to the mosque for prayers.
“Going after the Spokesman of our party’s Presidential Campaign Organization is aimed at muffling the organization’s voice and abridging the constitutionally-guaranteed rights of the Spokesman himself. This is antithetic to democracy and totally unacceptable,” it said.
The party said coming after the siege by armed troops on the residence of the APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu in Lagos and a similar siege on the Imo State Government House in Owerri, it is now clear that the President Goodluck Jonathan administration has finally launched its much-anticipated clampdown on the opposition ahead of the general elections.
The statement by the APC added: “The PDP and the Jonathan Administration are bent on badgering the opposition through the harassment, intimidation and arrest of its leaders as well as the circulation of unfounded rumours against the party. These actions are all aimed at fomenting a crisis and scuttling the forthcoming elections.
“We are therefore calling on all Nigerians as well as the international community to take note of this growing pattern of harassment and intimidation of the opposition, and the effect such action will have on the conduct of the elections.”
A visibly shaken Shehu wondered why policemen would lay siege on his residence as a form of harassment saying he and his campaign team were only doing their jobs.
According to him: “We are just doing our job of communication on behalf of our candidates and the party and we can’t see how that interferes with the security of Nigeria.”
Latest reports, however, indicate that the police detachment eventually left Garba Shehu’s residence around 6am.
