The National Consultative Front, a newly formed group, piloted by a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Umar Na’Abba, and former presidential candidate, Pat Utomi, has condemned the third invitation extended by the Department of State Services to a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Obadiah Mailafia.
NCFront in a statement by its Head of Public Affairs Bureau and former presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party, Tanko Yunusa, threatened “a major mass action” should anything happen to its leaders and associates, including Mailafia.
Yunusa said the invitation scheduled for Monday in Jos would be coming on the heels of a similar one by the Nigeria Police, which is currently being contested in court.
The statement reads, “We demand that nothing untoward should happen to any of our leaders and associates to avoid a major mass action. The NCFront believes in the right of every Nigerian to freely express themselves in civil society especially in a democracy as enshrined in the universal fundamental principles of human rights.
“We, therefore, unequivocally condemn this maltreatment of a respectable Nigerian like him and we stand firmly by him in this hour of his travails. Painting Mailafia in a bad light and attempting to pin on him an image of criminality is not only preposterous but also sinister.
“We are shocked to discover that Nigeria today is being run like a dictatorship by the current administration, which has developed a great penchant for gaging Nigerian citizens, denying them of their constitutional rights of freedom of expression and peaceful dissention.
“We, therefore, unequivocally condemn this maltreatment of a respectable Nigerian like him and we stand firmly by him in this hour of his travails. Painting Mailafia in a bad light and attempting to pin on him an image of criminality is not only preposterous but also sinister.
“We are shocked to discover that Nigeria today is being run like a dictatorship by the current administration, which has developed a great penchant for gaging Nigerian citizens, denying them of their constitutional rights of freedom of expression and peaceful dissention.”
