Timi Frank alleges that Buhari plans to arrest Obasanjo, Atiku and Saraki ahead of next year's polls

FORMER deputy publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Timi Frank has raised concerns that the government plans to arrest several high profile critics including the likes of former president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Senator Bukola Saraki.

According to Mr Frank, the current administration is planning to arrest Chief Obasanjo, former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the senate president Senator Saraki and detail them ahead of the 2019 general election in the name of fighting corruption. Speaking in Abuja yesterday, Mr Frank hinged his fears on a statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari that he would jail some Nigerians now that he is back from 10-day leave.

Upon arriving back from his holiday in the UK, President Buhari said that he would jail more of the thieves that brought economic problems to the country. Mr Frank said even before the president made it public, sources had informed some opposition leaders how the presidency was planning to arrest its perceived political enemies.

He added that he considered the president’s statement as a threat to Nigerians, calling on the president to look inward within his administration if he is looking for looters to jail. According to Mr Frank, President Buhari has returned to continue persecution of his political opponents and be selective in his fight against corruption.

Mr Frank said: “I want to tell you Mr President that you are presiding over the worst and most corrupt administration ever. If you really want to fight corruption, why not start from your kitchen cabinet and the leadership of APC?

“Nigerians and the international community are fully aware that all you have been doing is not fighting corruption but fighting your perceived political enemies. If the president carefully searches his government with an open mind, he will realise that he is surrounded by thieves.’’

He added that Nigeria is currently running a democratic system of government, which requires that a competent court must find someone guilty of any allegation before he or she can be sent to prison. In addition, Mr Frank said President Buhari, who doubles as the minister of petroleum, had not made known to Nigerians the budget of his ministry, let alone how much the country had generated from the sales of oil daily since his assumption of office three years ago.

He also reminded the president that Nigerians had not forgotten the $43m that was found in a house in Ikoyi, challenging him to make public the report of a panel of enquiry set up on the matter. Earlier this month, Mr Frank left the APC, saying he will continue to speak out against injustice, intimidation, political persecution and the criminalisation of all opponents of the ruling party.