PDP Demands Release Of CUPP Spokesman

The Peoples Democratic Party has called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to immediately release the Spokesperson of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, arrested allegedly on the orders of the Speaker of House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.

The PDP noted that the arrest of Ugochinyere is a “direct affront to the judiciary, an assault on our democratic practice and a violation of Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere’s rights as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution (as amended),” because there was a subsisting court order barring such action.

The party in a statement issued on Friday by its Spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, decried the arrest of the CUPP spokesman, noting that it is worried because reports suggest that he “is being detained under very dehumanizing condition where he is also allegedly being tortured.”

The party’s statement reads “The PDP insists that, without prejudice to the issues between the leadership of the House of Representatives and the CUPP, for which the two parties were before a court, resorting to using the police to arrest and detain the CUPP spokesperson, in defiance of the orders of the court, is completely unacceptable, unlawful and cannot be justified under any guise whatsoever.

“Our party charges the Presiding Officers of the APC-led House of Representatives to note that Nigeria is a democratic state, governed by law which creates no space for the whims and caprices of dictatorial, oppressive and vindictive individuals, who has no regard for rules

“The APC leaders in the House of Representatives should therefore respect the sanctity of the judiciary and the provisions of the law by following due process in dealing with issues, particularly those guaranteed by the constitution.”

Gbajabiamila is yet to react to this allegation at the time of this report.