State governors under the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday declared that the country is gradually and steadily sliding into dictatorship under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The governors, under the aegis of PDP Governors’ Forum, after a two-hour meeting of the forum held in the inner chamber of the Bayelsa State Governor’s Office in Yenagoa, said the administration of Muhammadu Buhari has consistently harassed and intimidated opposition members with arrest and unlawful invasion including the alleged invasion of the Akwa Ibom State Government House by men of the Department of State Services (DSS).
Out of the 13 PDP governors in the country, two governors and four deputy governors were present at the meeting.
The PDP governors, led by their chairman and governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, condemned the alleged invasion of Akwa Ibom State Government House by operatives of the DSS.
Mimiko, who read the communique of the forum to select journalists, said the invasion was against the spirit, ethos, values and fundamental tenets of democratic norms and tradition, more so with the existence of a duly elected and sworn in governor of the state.
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.