A Yoruba civil-society network on Tuesday claimed the presidency has drawn up a secret watch-list of opposition heavyweights for arrest and indefinite detention, part of what it calls a wider clamp-down on dissent ahead of the 2027 elections.
In a terse statement issued in Abuja, the group’s coordinator Adekunle O. Adebayo said former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, ex-Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi and one-time Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai top the list. Other alleged targets include former Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola, ex-Communications Minister Isa Pantami, ex-presidential aide Kashim Imam and “several other visible opposition voices.”
The pro-democracy network, which operates under the Yoruba axiom “Bí a bá pa ìtàn mọ́, ìtàn á pa wa” (“When truth is suppressed, it destroys the suppressor”), links the alleged plot to a task-force styled directive reportedly coordinated from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and executed through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit.
The group says former Sokoto governor Aminu Tambuwal, ex-Attorney-General Abubakar Malami and erstwhile Labour Minister Chris Ngige have already been “caught in the dragnet,” noting that Ngige is currently facing a N2.2 billion fraud charge after weeks in detention.
According to Adebayo, the aim is not honest graft-busting but “a coordinated political project to fracture emerging coalitions, drain opposition war-chests and brow-beat key figures into crossing over to the ruling party.”
Tactics listed include:
– selective arrests without immediate charge,
– prolonged pre-trial detention,
– seizure of travel documents,
– sponsorship of intra-party factions,
– and litigation marathon to exhaust campaign finances.
The group describes el-Rufai’s rumoured arrest as especially “telling,” noting that Kaduna State finances have been under the EFCC microscope for two years without any charge sheet linking him personally to a kobo of stolen money.
If carried out, the arrests would breach multiple sections of the 1999 Constitution, the statement argues – among them the right to personal liberty, freedom of association, equality before the law and judicial independence. “Weaponising law enforcement on the basis of party affiliation is the hallmark of dictatorship, not democracy,” Adebayo insists.
The network is asking the National Assembly, the Nigerian Bar Association and foreign missions to demand full disclosure of any existing detention order and to halt what it calls “state capture dressed up as anti-corruption.”
