Rebuild Nigeria International Forum(RNIF), a body of intellectuals and professionals in varying endeavours in Nigeria and the diaspora, working at the moment on ensuring the overwhelming success of the former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar in the coming 2019 Presidential elections have condemned outrightly and on equivocal terms, the recent government clampdown on the country’s national assembly, especially as it relates to the recent disregard on the persons of the Senate President Bukola Saraki and his deputy Ike Ekweremadu.
In a statement signed by the association’s Vice-President, Otunba Ernest Fasan, the group described the act as capable of halting the progress of the nation’s nascent democracy and instituting a breakdown of law and order which are important components of a civil and decent society.
The statement read:
“We at RNIF wish to seize this opportunity to register our great disappointment in the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari especially following up on the recent clampdown on members of the national assembly, especially the abuse on the Senate President Bukola Saraki and his deputy Ike Ekweremadu”.
“Without being unnecessarily forward, we are of the opinion that the act perpetrated by the security agencies against these two top citizens go a long way in proving that the present administration, with all due respect and regard for the Presidency, has enabled the denigration of the due regard and respect reserved for law and order in a decent and civil society, and the act which is well recognised and noted by the national citizenry, also goes a long way to show that since it could be perpetrated on ‘citizens in the unit’, no Nigerian is any longer guaranteed freedom associated with citizenship”.
“Even if any Nigerian is found culpable, the security agencies should know and apply the stipulated civil rules attached to reprimand rather than embark on gangsters display to achieve their aims and objectives, and we are very shocked that despite such acts of deviance, the executive arm of government seems to be looking elsewhere “.
“RNIF is unreservedly committed to the growth and development of democracy in Nigeria and would be unhappy with situations that encourage tampering with individual and collective human rights”.