NNPP asks peace c’ttee to wade into attacks on opposition leaders

The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has demanded a stop to attacks on opposition leaders by anti-democratic forces in the country.

The party which was reacting to the attack on the convoy of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, in Maiduguri, Borno State, on Wednesday, said it was outrageous, barbaric and repulsive, stressing that it intended to undermine the nation’s emerging democracy.

 The party, therefore, urged the General Abdulsami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee to intervene by convening an emergency meeting of the leaders of political parties and their presidential candidates.

Though the APC in the state and the Borno State command of the police have denied that there was an attack on Atiku’s convoy, a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the NNPP, Dr Agbo Major, described it as national embarrassment.

The statement reads in part: “NNPP calls on all lovers of constitutional rule to condemn and resist this dastardly act by anti-democratic forces that want to foist the rule of might and thuggery in place of our cherished rule of law, tolerance and unity in diversity.

“This latest attack on the foundations of the nation’s frail democracy shows the level of desperation and intolerance of opposition political parties by the outgoing All Progressives Congress (APC) in Borno State.”

The party recalled that in August this year it was a victim of political intolerance, saying the police sealed off its two secretariats in Maiduguri ahead of the presidential candidate, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s, visit to commission them.