Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state has said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is trying to silence Nigerians.
The governor was reacting to a statement by the president asking security agencies to clampdown on individuals politicizing the kidnap of schoolgirls.
In a statement issued on Saturday by his media aide, Lere Olayinka, the governor noted that it is the rights of Nigerians to express their views freely.
He said it was strange that the President who should be asking questions as to why military checkpoints in Dapchi and other surrounding towns were removed to pave way for the abduction of the girls was threatening Nigerians who are merely asking to be freed from a clueless government.
Fayose said: “President Buhari needs to be told that no one is politicising abduction and release of the Dapchi school girls. Rather, it is the federal government that is playing drama and did not come out clean on the abduction and release of the girls.
“In a democracy, the people are entitled to their views and can’t be silenced in their own land, particularly when the President has failed to protect Nigerians who are daily being killed, especially by herdsmen and Boko Haram terrorists.
“It is the rights of the citizens to call governments to order when they fail to live up to their responsibility. “The President and his men must also be told that even in military era, except under Buhari who introduced Decree 2, it did not get worse than this and Nigerians won’t allow their voice to be muzzled by a government that has failed them.
“That President Buhari and his men are afraid of Nigerians to the extent that they are even fighting tooth and nail against amendment of election sequence is a sign of government that has failed and afraid to lose election in 2019.”