A pro-democracy group, National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), has alleged fear over the recent deployment of troops to the South-East region, asserting that the nation is back to dictatorship which they all fought during the military era.
The group, in a press statement released after a meeting in Lagos, condemned the military operation against the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) in the south-east and the planned attempt to repeat it in the other two zones in Southern Nigeria.
The statement partly reads: “In Abia State, the soldiers invaded communities, tortured civilian population, over-awed the constitutionally elected governor and civil institutions of the state, and declared the IPOB a terrorist organisation, in defiance of the judgment of the Federal High Court.
“All of these actions are unconstitutional and represent an illegal takeover of the functions of the National Assembly, the Abia State House of Assembly and the legal authorities.
“The Army High Command has announced further that the ‘Operation Python Dance’ will be a regular event and that another similar activity named ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’ will be carried out in the south-south and south-west.
“The actions of the military, we restate, are inconsistent with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and may be the beginning, if not checked, of the unwitting or witting subversion of democracy in Nigeria.”
