From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

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Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Caretaker Committee has raised the alarm that Nigeria, under the All Progressives Congress (APC), has become a Gestapo (secret police) state.
The committee, in a statement issued in Abuja, yesterday, by its spokesman, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, claimed that the country was drifting into dictatorship under the  President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
It decried a situation whereby some prominent citizens, especially state governors, ministers and other government officials, who served in the previous administration, have been arrested and detained indefinitely without trial.
It claimed that while PDP leaders and members were arrested and detained without trial,  APC chieftains, who have been accused of corruption, were rewarded with appointments by the government.
The PDP cited former governors of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam and Niger State, Babangida Aliyu arrested by men of the Department of State Security (DSS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) who have been held in detention for weeks without any formal charges brought against.
“Former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki, has been in custody for about two years now without trial. Similar brutality, arrest and mindless detention went on with other PDP leaders and members that were arrested by either the DSS or the EFCC.
“It is no gainsaying that, under the present APC-led government, the agencies arrest suspects, convict them in the media and detain them against the law before they are proven innocent or otherwise by the court. It is also very clear in the Constitution of Nigeria that no security agency has the right or power to detain suspects more than 48 hours without trial,” the party said.
The PDP urged the Buhari government to obey court orders that granted bail to some of the past government officials now in custody.
The opposition party stated that it was not against the anti-graft war of the present administration.
However, it called on the APC government to follow due process in dealing with issues of corruption, without abusing the human rights of suspects.
“In this context, the actions of this APC administration is a clear case of injustice and vendetta. We, herebym call on the ruling government to charge all those in detention to court, as a matter of urgency and those granted bail by the courts must be freed immediately.
“As a law-abiding party, we shall deploy all constitutional means, both domestically and internationally, to seek redress on this Gestapo rule,” the PDP said.