The Director of New Media, Muri/Sam Campaign Council of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Isaiah Ijele in a viral statement has accused the Kogi state governor of plotting to arrest some SDP leaders. According to the statement which has gone viral on Facebook , and also reported by media organisations, Bello planned on arresting these leaders through allegations linking to terrorism. Paragraph three of the SDP’s statements claims that in a bid to execute his plan, the governor has secured a court order for the purpose of arresting his opponents on alleged trumped up charges
Claim: Yahaya Bello Secures Court Order To Arrest SDP Leaders Based On False Terrorism Charges?
Verification
To establish the veracity of the claim, CDD War Room spoke with Williams Ovye Aya, the Kogi state Police public relations officer. Williams who described the claim as baseless also insisted that there have been no reports of such. He added that the commission had arrested no one in relations to terrorism from the party.
The CDD War Room contacted Moses Peter the SDP state chairman who declined to comment on the issue. CDD War Room also found a report by the Punch capturing the reaction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) director of Media and Publicity, Kogi State Campaign Council, Kingsley Fanwo.
He reacted to the statement by the SDP calling it “another tempo of falsehood from the bottle-size, overambitious group.”
Fanwo therefore urged security agencies to invite Ijele for questioning, if they fail to tender facts to support their claim. It is pertinent to recall that the CDD War Room had earlier done a fact shield on claims relating to restraining court orders in the build up to the election in Kogi state. This was prompted by a viral message circulating on various social media platforms claiming that a Federal High Court had issued a fresh injunction preventing all security agencies in the country from apprehending or detaining Murtala Ajaka, the gubernatorial candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Kogi State.
Verdict: NO EVIDENCE
The CDD War Room found no evidence to support the claim by Ijele that the governor has secured a court order to arrest SDP leaders and slam them terrorism charges.