Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) chastised Festus Keyamo, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, on Friday for directing the Department of State Services (DSS) to arrest Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed.
WITHIN NIGERIA recalls that Keyamo urged the DSS on Thursday to invite LP leaders to challenge Bola Tinubu’s declaration as President-elect. He accused Obi and Datti of inciting a backlash against the judiciary in Nigeria.
In a statement issued by its national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in response to Keyamo’s call, HURIWA warned that if anything happened to Obi and his running mate, the country would be thrown into chaos.
The group chastised Keyamo for claiming that the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal would clear Tinubu of all allegations leveled against him by Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), despite the fact that the case had yet to be heard.
The group said;
The petition by Festus Keyamo to the DSS is a total abuse of office as Minister and privilege as a member of the ruling party. The DSS should kick out the petition and not entertain it at all because it is totally illegal and has no place in a sane society.
Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed have decided to go to court to challenge the declaration of Bola Tinubu as the President-Elect by INEC in the controversial election of February 25, 2023. Obi and Baba-Ahmed are in court as they are advised by Tinubu and in fact, President Muhammadu Buhari.
However, instead of allowing the petition tribunal at the Court of Appeal to decide on the electoral matter, Keyamo, who parade himself as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, displayed a total ignorance and disrespected himself as a member of the inner bar by asking the DSS to arrest Obi and Baba-Ahmed.
President Muhammadu Buhari should have sacked him when he started earning two salaries as Minister and as Tinubu campaigner. Nigeria will burn if they touch Peter Obi. They should not think that they have the DSS in their pocket.