The All Progressives Congress, APC, has accused the police of selective enforcement of its ban on political, socio-cultural and religious rallies at the nation’s airports.
In a statement in Lagos, yesterday, by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the police were wrong to have allowed the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to flout the ban with impunity on February 1, when hundreds of the party’s members thronged the Bauchi airport to welcome the new PDP chairman, Adamu Muazu.
Mohammed said a video footage of the reception showed PDP supporters, cultural troupes and praise singers besieging the airport and even surrounding the plane just like passengers would have surrounded a ‘Molue’ in a bus stop, pointing out that this was even as armed policemen looked the other way.
According to him, the police ban on airport rallies was signed by the agency’s spokesman, Frank Mbah, on November 6, last year.
Mohammed then alerted Nigerians that the alleged selective enforcement of the order “does not augur well for the 2015 general elections when the police are expected to be neutral and professional in carrying out their duties.
“The questions to ask are: Is the ban not applicable to the PDP? If it is applicable to it, what has the police done to sanction the party since it breached the order over two weeks ago? If the police will allow the PDP to get away with such lawlessness, can the same police sanction any other party or individual who breaches its order banning rallies at airports?”
He further alleged that the double standard being exhibited by the police was the reason many Nigerians were accusing it of having turned itself to the enforcement arm of the PDP
