Clampdown on opposition: Tinubu’s government endangering democracy in Nigeria- Group

Pro-democracy and good governance advocacy group, Country First Movement, says President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s leadership style is endangering the current democracy in Nigeria.

The group condemned the recent disruption of meetings of the opposition by the federal government-controlled security agency in lagos and kaduna states.

In a separate statements on Thursday, lagos state government and the Kaduna Command of Nigerian Police Force accused the opposition party of holding meetings without approval of security agency in the state.

However, the pro-democracy group, Country First Movement in a statement on Saturday by its Convener, Professor Chris Nwaokobia jnr, insisted that refusing the opposition the space to organize is akin to trying democracy to the shooting range.

“Is the APC so mortally scared of the coalition and by jove the opposition that it must stifle constitutional freedoms and strangulate dissent,”the group queried.

Continuing, the group queried “What about the incessant harassment of pro-democracy activists and the critics of the present watch; and what is the reason for the many arrests and persecution of my friend and brother, Citizen omoyele Sowore?

“I hear that the reason the police asked the court for his bank statements is that they suspect that he has received about $100 million to help topple the government, ye ye dey smell. How can those who are consistently endangering democracy be hunting and hounding the defenders of democracy? Unusual times indeed.

The civil society group called on country men and women to rise up to defend democracy, reminding them that democracy dies where the freedoms enshrined in the constitution are stifled and strangled.