Ben Murray-Bruce alleges ‘harassment’ of Atiku on arrival from Dubai

The senator representing Bayelsa East constituency at the National Assembly, Ben Murray-Bruce, has condemned what he alleged as “reckless harassment” of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar.

It may be recalled that Atiku had relocated to Dubai almost after he won his party’s ticket as its presidential candidate, saying the aim was to “strategise” for the 2019 presidential election.

Atiku returned to Nigeria on Sunday afternoon.

However, taking to his verified Twitter handle @benmurraybruce, the senator tweeted, “I totally condemn this reckless harassment of @atiku the candidate of the @OfficialPDPNig as he landed in Abuja.

“Nigeria is not a fascist state. We will not return to a jackboot dictatorship. This government should face Atiku at the polls, not with force.”

While it is not immediately clear if Mr. Murray-Bruce was with Atiku on arrival from Dubai, the senator seemed to have based his allegation on a publication by an online platform, Blueprint. He attached the publication to his tweet.

The online publication had reported that: “Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has returned from his vacation trip to Dubai around 1:30am, even as a special security squad comprises of (sic) Army, Police, Custom and Immigration officers were allegedly deployed by the presidency to do a thorough searching of the former Vice President and his aircraft.

“During the search video recording, gadgets and other devices were use (sic) to record the search but nothing implicative (sic) was find (sic) on the PDP presidential candidate.” Punch