A civil society group has raised alarm over what it described as a coordinated plan to arrest and detain leading opposition figures, warning that the move forms part of a broader strategy to weaken opposition politics and entrench a de facto one-party state in Nigeria.
In a statement released Tuesday, December 23, in Abuja, by its coordinator, Adekunle O. Adebayo, the group alleged that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, alongside Rotimi Amaechi and Nasir el-Rufai, has been marked for arrest.
The pro-Yoruba group on the platform of “Bí a bá pa ìtàn mọ́, ìtàn á pa wa.” (When truth is suppressed, it eventually destroys those who suppress it), further claimed that Isa Ali Pantami, Rauf Aregbesola, Kashim Ibrahim Imam, and other prominent figures are also being targeted, following earlier arrests and detentions of Aminu Tambuwal, Abubakar Malami, and Chris Ngige.
According to the statement, the arrests are linked to a covert multi-agency security directive allegedly coordinated from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and executed through a task force involving anti-corruption, intelligence, and financial-crime agencies.
It described the initiative as “a political project aimed not at law enforcement, but at neutralising opposition forces, particularly within emerging coalition platforms.”
The group alleged that the strategy includes selective arrests and prolonged detentions without charge, coercion of politically exposed persons to defect to the ruling party, disruption of lawful opposition meetings, engineered factionalisation within opposition parties, and the use of prolonged litigation to exhaust opposition resources.
It described the reported plan to arrest Nasir el-Rufai as especially revealing, noting that his administration has already been subjected to extensive investigation for over two years without any established evidence of personal wrongdoing, despite sustained scrutiny.
The group warned that “these actions, if carried out, would constitute grave violations of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), including breaches of the rights to personal liberty, freedom of association and expression, equality before the law, and judicial independence.”
It stressed that the selective application of law enforcement based on political affiliation is incompatible with constitutional democracy.
The group called on Nigerians, civil society, and the international community to closely monitor developments, warning that the country risks sliding toward a system where democratic institutions exist only in form, while political power is consolidated through coercion and selective justice.
