A leading opposition leader was
detained Tuesday shortly after calling on Nigeriens to boycott President
Mamadou Tandja's planned referendum.
Bazoum
Mohammed, deputy president of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and
Socialism (PNDS) was briefly arrested and released after calling for a boycott
of the referendum on a local radio station.
President Tandja's plan to hold an
August fourth referendum has received wide condemnation from opposition groups
as well as the international community.
The president, whose second five-year term
ends in December, wants to change the constitution to extend his rule for three
more years.
Mohammed told VOA the government accused him of encouraging
illegality.
"I
was arrested for about two hours and they asked me some questions about a
statement I have said yesterday on the referendum, Mr. Tandja wants to organize
next month,"
Mohammed said.
He said the opposition is
calling on Nigeriens to stay away from the August referendum.
"We as opposition, we will
boycott and we will forbid the people from attending this referendum," he said.
Mohammed said the security
agents questioned behind his call for the referendum boycott.
"They asked me if I was
aware that that means we (opposition) want to tell people to not respect (the)
law. I told them that they are not respecting the law because the
Constitutional Court cancelled (ruled as illegal the planned referendum)…so
what they are going to organize is illegal," Mohammed said.
He said the opposition is
aware of the risk in challenging President Tandja's planned referendum.
"When you fight in our
condition, you must be aware to be arrested and you must accept it. But how
many people can they arrest? They will likely arrest some of us, but they
cannot arrest all the Nigerien people," he said.
Mohammed said the opposition
is determined to defeat President Tandja's plan.
"We have decided to forbid
them (government) to organize the referendum. And even though they can arrest
some of us, the many people of Niger will fight against them…and we are sure
that we will succeed," Mohammed said.
He said the opposition plans
to disrupt the August fourth referendum.
"We will set up some
operation on that day. And we are sure that we have people who will do all what
they want to do…on that day we will do so many operations and we are sure that
we will win," he said.
Mohammed said the opposition
will embark on a nationwide campaign against the referendum.
"We will have our program to
visit all the country and we will tell people to be ready. And we are sure that
they will be ready and they will do what we tell them to do," Mohammed said.
Niger's opposition political
parties have often condemned President Tandja's planned referendum describing
it as a coup d'état.