Abuja — Former Presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Muhammadu Buhari, has accused President Umaru Yar'Adua and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of fascism over the detention of indigenes of Bauchi State without trial.

Their alleged offence, he explained in Abuja on Tuesday, is that they expressed displeasure over the return of Governor Isa Yuguda from the ANPP to the PDP.

Yuguda, who is also Yar'Adua's son-in-law, was last Saturday welcomed to the PDP by the President and other party stalwarts, among them six other PDP Governors.

A statement issued by the Secretary of the Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation, Buba Galadima, alleged that "about 10 days to the event the security agencies in Bauchi State, led by the police, started mopping up and arresting innocent indigenes of the state in a wholesome crackdown.

"News had it that no fewer than 2,000 people were arrested in a house-to-house crackdown and clamped down in prisons in Mizau, Azare and Bauchi - and, beyond the state, in Gombe, Jalingo etc.

Galadima said they were called miscreants planning to cause confusion and disrupt Yar'Adua's visit to Bauchi.

He accused Yar'Adua of fascism, and intimidation of the citizenry, using the police as a weapon.

"The police didn't show any evidence incriminating any of those arrested, nor was any of them taken to a court of law as provided by the Constitution which Yar'Adua has sworn to uphold."

Whereas, he noted, the law is specific that "no citizen of Nigeria could be arrested for more than 48 hours without being taken to a court of law, irrespective of whatever his offence".

He described the action as illegal, particularly under a government whose mantra is the rule of law, since "the police also do not have power to arrest any citizen without a warrant from a Judge on framed up and spurious allegations, let alone commit such a citizen to prison without going through a legally constituted court."

The statement noted that the incident is not the first in the Yar'Adua administration.

"It should be remembered that the other day security agents opened fire on peaceful demonstrators in Zaria protesting against epileptic power supply; killing four, injuring several and arresting 63 who have not regained their freedom up to now.

"In Maiduguri, mourners on their way to bury the dreaded in procession were accosted by the dredged Operation Flush, and before you know it, 17 people were gunned down for a simple traffic offence of not putting on helmet.

"In both cases no security man was interrogated, let alone arrested or sanctioned, prosecuted or jailed."

The statement described the silence of the PDP on these issues as criminal, and challenged all Nigerians to stand up for their right in the face of tyranny gradually taking up the land.

"Nigerians must stand up for their rights because today, it is the ordinary man in Zaria, Maiduguri, and Bauchi; tomorrow it might be me or you. This is fascism and dictatorship of the highest order.

"The PDP is also testing the waters for what is in store for us in 2011.

"The police and other security agencies must be told in clear terms that their loyalty should be to the Nigerian State, its Constitution, and not to an individual or the PDP.

"The innocent citizens in detention in Zaria, Maiduguri, and Bauchi must be released unconditionally and compensated for unjust detention and depravation."