The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has challenged the Department of State Services (DSS) to disclose identities of those planning to instal an interim government.
On Wednesday, the secret police, in a statement by its spokesman, Dr. Peter Afunaya, said it had confirmed a plot by some key players to install an interim government and stop the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu from being inaugurated on May 29.
The DSS said the plot includes embarking on violent protests nationwide to engineer the declaration of a state of emergency as well as securing frivolous court injunctions to stall the inauguration.
But Atiku, in a statement by his media aide, Timi Frank, alleged that the alarm of a plot to prevent Tinubu from being sworn in as president was a calculated move to arrest the PDP presidential candidate and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and clampdown on protesters
before May 29.
“The DSS’ purported intelligence is fake. It is a plot to crackdown on protesters and arrest opposition political leaders before May 29,” he said.
“We have credible information that the DSS issued the statement in preparation for its planned disruption of ongoing protest by Nigerians who are demonstrating peacefully to demand justice and the restoration of their stolen mandate.
“Where was their intelligence when the Independent National Electoral Commission and Mahmood Yakubu were compromised to rig the 2023 general election?” he asked.
He contended “Nigerians have been under siege by bandits, kidnappers and terrorists for a long time now, but the DSS never gave intelligence to foil kidnapping, heinous attacks, maiming and killing of innocent Nigerians.
“The only time you see the DSS coming up to talk about intelligence is whenever Nigerians are preparing to either protest against obnoxious government policies, rules, human rights abuses or carrying out lawful political activities.
“The DSS must stop this method of intimidating Nigerians, especially politicians, whenever they want to exercise their constitutional rights.