The PDP claimed that the Police, working in connivance with APC, is arresting its members and planned to keep them behind bars until after the election.
The Akwa Ibom chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged the Inspector General of Police and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to court over the indiscriminate arrest of its members.
Akwa Ibom PDP is demanding the sum of N100million as damages.
The PDP claimed that the Police, working in connivance with APC, is arresting its members and planned to keep them behind bars until after the election.
The party claimed that its members, especially in Essien Udim, are being picked and locked up without being charged to court.
PDP also accused the Police of plotting to frame its leaders in the state.
In the suit marked HU/FRU18/2019, PDP maintained that the actions of the Police contravened Section 40 of the 199 Constitution, as well as Articles 11 and 13, respectively, of the African Charter of Human Right and Peoples Rights.
The suit read: “We have received credible intelligence that during the build-up to the general election, buses branded as PDP, vehicles bearing the state government number plates, would be loaded with arms and occupied by some criminals, heading for the APC rally.
“On approaching, the bus and their occupants would be arrested and the contents of the buses displayed for all to see a major security breakthrough. Additionally, the criminals would mention some PDP topshots as their financiers, necessitating their arrest and subsequent prosecution under the Anti-terrorism Act.
“This plot which is hatched and sponsored by the opposition, APC, is aimed at arresting and incarcerating our key members and keeping them away from circulation throughout the elections.
“In the past few weeks, the leadership of the PDP has been inundaunted by calls from different parts of the state where its supporters have been wantonly arrested and incarcerated without any lawful justification.
“In Essien Udim, many of our members have been arrested and detained for over two weeks without being charged to court."
The applicants prayed the court to make an order for a perpetual injunction restraining the respondents, either acting alone or in concert with one another, from violating the enjoyment of their fundamental human rights in the manner so stated.
It also asked to be paid N100million as relief for infringement of rights of some of its members arrested.