Travel ban on governors could plunge Nigeria into civil war - PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Osun State chapter, yesterday warned President Muhammadu Buhari against acts capable of plunging the country into civil war, saying tampering with the constitutionally guaranteed immunity of governors would spell doom for the country.

The party, in a statement issued in Osogbo by its Director of Research, Publicity and Strategy, Prince Diran Odeyemi, urged the President to immediately drop plans to alleged plans to impose travel ban on governors of Rivers and Ekiti states – Nyesom Wike and Ayo Fayose, respectively, saying there was nothing done to Buhari by the duo that Rauf Aregbesola of Osun did not do to Goodluck Jonathan while he was in office. Odeyemi said the same Section 308 of the constitution that gives the President immunity also provides the governors with same leverage, adding that, instead of tinkering with the idea of travel ban on the governors, if any security infraction is noticed, the President should approach the court.

Recalling how the PDP Obasanjo-led Federal Government approached the court when the administration of Senator Bola Tinubu created local government areas in Lagos State, Odeyemi opined that adding the salt of travel ban on governors with immunity which is the same as the president, to the injury of constant flouting of court orders by the Buhari administration in the last one year is not portraying the president as a true democrat.

The statement reads in part: “Since the news broke of plans by Buhari to ban PDP governors Ayo Fayose and Nyesom Wike from travelling using Department of State Security, DSS, as threat, images of events of the past years have kept on reappearing “We don’t want anything that can truncate this democracy. Attempt to strip two PDP governors of their immunity is capable of enacting civil war .” The party then called on all past leaders to prevail on President Buhari to shelve the idea to save the country of needless tension and constitutional crises.