Former vice president Atiku Abubakar has warned President Muhammadu Buhari against overheating the polity by arresting former president Olusegun Obasanjo over trumped up charges.

In a statement released by Atiku last night, he urged President Buhari to remember the huge price paid for democracy and desist from doing anything to truncate it.

Atiku was reacting to a statement issued by Obasanjo that the Buhari administration had placed him on his watch list and also planning to use fake documents and witnesses against him in order to prepare ground for his arrest.

According to Atiku: ”I have received with serious concern the purported alert raised by former President Olusegun Obasanjo of an alleged plot by the government to arrest him on trumped up charges.

”I am disturbed by this turn of events in our dear country considering the huge price that was paid for us to have democracy.”

Read Atiku’s full statement below:

Statement By former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Alarm Raised By former President Olusegun Obasanjo

I have received with serious concern the purported alert raised by former President Olusegun Obasanjo of an alleged plot by the government to arrest him on trumped up charges.

I am disturbed by this turn of events in our dear country considering the huge price that was paid for us to have democracy.

I wish to advise that government and its agents should retrace their steps to avoid aggravating the already over heated polity.

The alert by President Obasanjo is coming against the backdrop of earlier alerts by some leaders, especially those of the opposition of deliberate and orchestrated attempt to intimidate and frame them up.

I wish to state without equivocation that President Obasanjo is a historical figure in Nigeria’s democracy and that the primary purpose of government is to provide security of lives and property of all citizens and residents irrespective of their status, political affiliation, religious inclination and ethnic leanings.

Our nation has lost so much precious lives and property that we can no longer afford to travel that road again.

I wish to appeal to President Buhari to call the security agencies to order in order to douse the tension in the land.

Atiku Abubakar
Vice President of Nigeria, 1999-2007
June 8th 2018