Members of the Peoples Democratic Party Governors Forum have urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress to respect Nigeria’s democratic traditions and not slide the country into dictatorship.
The Governors also condemned Department of State Security (DSS) invasion of Akwa Ibom government house.
They made this statement after a two-hour meeting of the forum held in the inner chamber of the Bayelsa State governor’s office in Yenagoa.
Governor of Ondo State Olusegun Mimiko who is also the Chairman of the forum read the communiqué to journalists after the meeting.
He said “We insist that the trend must stop henceforth. No democracy survives without a viable opposition in any part of the world and we must also remember to remind the APC that they are the real beneficiaries of the liberal democratic ethos of the PDP.
“We once more advise the DSS to preoccupy itself with the task of ensuring internal security and desist from daily harassing and intimidating members of the opposition.
“We implore the international community, the civil society organisations and human rights activists to call the All Progressives Party led Federal Government to order and to insist that it respects the well entrenched democratic tradition.
“We all have a duty to prevent what looks to us like a steady slide of this country into dictatorship.”
The governors present during the meeting include Mimiko and the host, Seriake Dickson, while the deputies that represented their governors were those of Delta, Kingsley Otuaro; Abia, Chris Akomas; Ebonyi, Kelechi Igwe and Kogi, Yomi Awoniyi.
Governors of Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Cross River, Benue, Ekiti and Taraba didn’t attend the meeting and neither did they send representatives.