Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has lashed out at President Bola Tinubu’s administration over the prosecution of Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters.
Atiku lamented that Sowore’s prosecution, as well as the arrest and detention of Prof Usman Yusuf, a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), amount to “systematic harassment and intimidation.”
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) arrested Yusuf on Wednesday, over alleged N4 billion fraud, amongst others.
Reacting to this via his official X handle on Thursday, Atiku described Sowore’s prosecution as baseless, adding that Tinubu’s government may soon imprison everyone who criticises his administration.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general election claimed that the alleged systematic harassment of critics and opposition figures and the purported dismantling of opposition parties were ploys to establish a one-party system.
He wrote: “When I made the clarion call that Tinubu and the APC were devoting their energies to the systematic harassment, intimidation, and dismantling of the opposition, all in service of their grand design for a one-party autocracy, I became the target of vicious attacks.
“The arrest and baseless prosecution of @YeleSowore is the latest chapter in this unrelenting campaign. Now, they have seen fit to add Professor Usman Yusuf— an outspoken critic of this administration — into their grim roster. At the pace they are going, it seems they may soon find themselves contending with the incarceration of every one of us.”
Atiku’s comment followed his earlier claim that the APC is destroying opposition parties to achieve a one-party system.
While speaking as a panelist at a national conference held in Abuja recently, Atiku had alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) bribed opposition parties with N50 million to weaken their leadership ahead of the 2027 election.
His claim has sparked reactions from opposition parties, as the Labour Party and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) asked the former Vice President to provide concrete evidence to support his allegation.