The National Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has expressed concern over what he described as a growing sense of insecurity among opposition political parties, warning that no opposition party in Nigeria currently feels safe from the possibility of deregistration.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, Baba-Ahmed said recent developments involving political parties and court proceedings had created an atmosphere of uncertainty, leaving opposition parties apprehensive about their future.
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“I don’t think any party in the opposition sleeps with both eyes,” Baba-Ahmed said when asked whether the PRP was worried about possible deregistration.
Pressed further on whether the concern also affected his party, he replied: “Every party, except APC.”
His comments come against the backdrop of the Federal High Court judgment in Lokoja, Kogi State, which deregistered the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC.
The court had set aside its earlier judgment directing the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to register the NDC as a political party.
The judgment was sequel to an application by the Peace Movement Party, PMP, which asked that the December 2025 judgment be set aside because it was not joined in the suit.
According to the PRP National Chairman, any opposition party claiming to feel completely secure was not being realistic about the country’s current political environment.
“Any party that tells you that they feel absolutely comfortable, then they’re not serious about being a political party in this country,” he said, describing the prevailing atmosphere as “very unnerving.”
Baba-Ahmed also reflected on the PRP’s political history, dismissing suggestions that the party owed its relevance to the late Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto.
“No, it’s not Sardauna. Actually, we were a thorn in the flesh of Sardauna. We weren’t his party; we opposed him,” he said.
Wrong Time For State Police
Baba-Ahmed also criticised the Federal Government’s renewed push for the establishment of state police, arguing that the proposal was ill-timed and that the administration should instead focus on improving the performance of existing security institutions.
He argued that the issue of state police had existed long before the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
“President Tinubu’s administration has been in power for more than three years. The issue of state police has been on the table for longer than Tinubu’s government,” he said.
“If it’s such a crucial element for improving our security, you would think a serious government, a serious president, would have said,
‘Let’s do state police.’ It’s been there all along.”
He maintained that the military had increasingly assumed responsibilities that should ordinarily be handled by the police, insisting that strengthening existing institutions would be more effective than creating a new policing structure.
“There are still 101 things President Tinubu can do with what he has on the ground to improve our security, to bring an end to all this stealing of human beings and killing of human beings,” he said.
“There is still the military. There is still the police. He can improve policing. He can improve the performance of the military. He can address many, many things.”
He argued that introducing state police without first addressing the shortcomings of the Nigeria Police Force would only deepen the country’s security challenges.
“No, that’s not what he’s doing. He’s creating policemen and giving them to states. He thinks that is the solution to the problem,” he said.
“You have the federal police that has failed to do any work. So what you’re doing is saying, ‘Governors, create your own police and go and do what you want to do with them.’ You are compounding the problem that we have.”
