From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum has condemned in very strong terms, the invasion of the Akwa Ibom State Government House by operatives of the Department of State Security ( DSS), warning that Nigeria is gradually sliding into dictatorship under President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Forum, which made the observation in a communique issued at the end of its meeting in Bayelsa State Government House, said the invasion was against the spirit, ethos, values and fundamental tenets of democratic norms and tradition.
Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and Governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, who read the communiqué to journalists, said democracy cannot survive without a viable opposition, adding that the All Progressives Congress( APC) has been a beneficiary of liberal democracy enthroned by the PDP- led administration when it was in charge of the federal government.
According to him, PDP governors were ,”worried, alarmed and shocked” by such desecration, which he described as an assault on democracy by the DSS.
He said: “We insist that the trend must stop henceforth. No democracy survives without a viable opposition in any part of the world and we must also, remember to remind the APC that they are the real beneficiaries of the liberal democratic ethos of the PDP.
“We, once more, advise the DSS to preoccupy itself with the task of ensuring internal security and desist from daily harassing and intimidating members of the opposition.
“We implore the international community, the civil society organisations and human rights activists to call the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government to order, and to insist that it respects the well entrenched democratic tradition. We all have a duty to prevent what looks to us like a steady slide of this country into dictatorship.”