A civil society group has raised the alarm over an alleged coordinated plan to arrest and detain leading opposition figures, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, former Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, among others.

The group alleged that the move forms part of a broader strategy to weaken opposition politics and entrench a de facto one-party state in Nigeria.

In a statement released yesterday by its Coordinator, Adekunle Adebayo, the group alleged that Atiku Abubakar, Amaechi and El-Rufai have been marked for arrest.

He noted: “The arrests are linked to a covert multi-agency security directive allegedly coordinated from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and executed through a task force involving anti-corruption, intelligence, and financial-crime agencies.”

The group alleged that the strategy includes selective arrests and prolonged detentions without charge, coercion of politically exposed persons to defect to the ruling party, disruption of lawful opposition meetings, engineered factionalization within opposition parties, and the use of prolonged litigation to exhaust opposition resources.

The group on the platform of “Bí a bá pa ìtàn m?´, ìtàn á pa wa.” (When truth is suppressed, it eventually destroys those who suppress it), further claimed that Isa Pantami, Kashim Imam, and other prominent figures are also being targeted, following earlier arrests and detentions of Aminu Tambuwal, Abubakar Malami, and Chris Ngige.

The group described the reported plan to arrest el-Rufai as especially revealing, noting that his administration has already been subjected to extensive investigation for over two years without any established evidence of personal wrongdoing, despite sustained scrutiny.

The group warned that “these actions, if carried out, would constitute grave violations of the 1999 Constitution as amended, including breaches of the rights to personal liberty, freedom of association and expression, equality before the law, and judicial independence.

It stressed that selective application of law enforcement based on political affiliation is incompatible with constitutional democracy. (THISDAY, but headline rejigged)