APM Seeks International Sanctions Against Officials Undermining Democracy

The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) has asked the international community to impose diplomatic sanctions including Visa bans, asset freezing and other strong measures against government officials undermining Nigeria’s democracy.

The opposition party, urged International Development partners, democratic institutions and friends of Nigeria, including the United Nations, European Union, African Union, the Commonwealth of Nations, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France among others, to take strong diplomatic steps to rescue the country nation and preserve the lives of over 200 million citizens who, according to the party, are now trapped under the stranglehold of authoritarianism under President Bola Tinubu’s watch.

The APM also called on Nigerians, the media, civil society organisations, opposition parties, and organised groups across the country to join forces to redeem the nation’s democracy from the brutal and repressive authoritarianism under the President Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration

It charged Nigerians to jettison divisive considerations, resist authoritarianism and vote out President Bola Tinubu and the APC at the 2027 presidential election.

APM made the call on the heels of its  repeated alarms over the authoritarian tendencies of the Tinubu-led APC administration, which alarms have been further confirmed by the disquieting report published on the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) Tyranny Tracker platform, www.tyrannytracker.org, stating that Nigeria is now a full authoritarian state under President Tinubu.

According to a statement by APM’s national publicity secretary, Abubakar Yusuf, the HRF report confirms APM’s position that under President Tinubu, Nigeria’s constitutional democracy and democratic institutions have been captured by executive authoritarianism.

APM added, “Security, anti-corruption agencies and the courts have also become weapons against opposition parties and dissenting voices with citizens now living in despair and fear of the government in power.

The APM spokesman added that besides the continued rampaging of communities by terrorists with “over 628,000 Nigerians killed and 2.2 million others abducted under President Tinubu’s watch,” he said HRF Report confirmed the use of security agencies to violently subdue citizens with scores killed and hundreds of others beaten, arrested, detained and charged for treason for criticizing the Tinubu administration.

“Today in Nigeria, freedom of expression and the media have been suppressed with about 100 journalists brutalized and detained by authorities for covering pro-democracy protests or critical reporting.

“Also under President Tinubu’s watch, authorities continue to restrict opposition parties including using security cagencies to intimidate, harass, detain and prosecute opposition leaders on trumped-up charges while denying opposition parties access to venues for political mobilization. In many APC controlled states, opposition parties are denied access to the media and right to erect campaign billboards.

“More disturbing is the compromising conducts and activities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under a known Tinubu apologist, Prof. Josiah Amupitan, including undue interferences in the internal affairs of opposition parties and refusal to obey court orders favouring such parties.

“Currently, majority of Nigerians have lost hope in the integrity of INEC as presently constituted, to conduct credible general elections that will reflect the Will of the people in 2027.”

APM added that it is equally unsettling that the APC-led National Assembly has become overtly compromised and now acts as a rubber stamp for authoritarianism against its constitutional mandate to check the excesses of the executive.

“Characteristic of authoritarianism, the Tinubu-led APC administration continues to pile strain on citizens and businesses with asphyxiating economic policies, multiple taxes, indirect levies and condoning of revenue collection harassments.

“The APM is worried that the current situation in Nigeria, if not addressed, might lead to a crisis of monumental proposition capable of derailing our nation’s democracy and triggering a large-scale humanitarian disaster that can negatively impact neighbouring countries and of course, the international community.

“Nigerians must use the 2027 general elections as a decisive opportunity to vote in a truly democratic and people-oriented government on the platform of the APM, in our collective commitment to preserve our democracy and restore our dear nation to the path of Rule of Law, economic prosperity and national stability,” the party added.