The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has told the Federal Government to fight
corruption and stop hounding members of the opposition parties.
The party frowned at the Motion Exparte filed by the Special Presidential
Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property seeking the
forfeiture of assets allegedly not declared by the Deputy President of the
Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, alleging plots to silence the opposition.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola
Ologbodiyan, on Thursday, the party said that while the PDP was in full
support of any genuine anti-graft war, the All Progressives Congress (APC)-
led administrations obsession with Ekweremadu was another clear indication
that it was not ready to fight corruption, but rather out to scandalise,
persecute, and bring down its perceived opponents.
It said: The PDP recalls that this government rushed to arraign Senator
Ekweremadu and the Senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki in 2016 on trumped
up charges of forgery of Senate Standing Rule, even when there was not even
a mention of their names in the contentious police report or Proof of
Evidence. It eventually withdrew the charges for lack of merit.
The police raided and ransacked Senator Ekweremadus official guest house
in Abuja in May 2017 and blamed it on false whistleblowers, whom they
charged to court. Nothing has been heard about the trial of the alleged
false whistleblowers again.
In the current matter, apart from relying on an obsolete law to dabble
into the roles of the Code of Conduct Bureau, we are not surprised that the
Panel could not carry out a thorough and independent investigation on the
purported property of the senator, but relied on a petition by the former
Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice Innocent Umezulike, who is standing
corruption trial in several courts, after his removal from office by the
National Judicial Council (NJC) in 2017.
“We recall that the senator accused Umezulike and some politicians of
stealing and doctoring his will, inserting non-existent properties or
properties that had nothing to do with him.
It is also instructive that this calculated smear campaign is in the guise
of forfeiture of phantom assets came on the heels of Senator Ekweremadus
alarm and scathing criticism of the APC-led administration over the
nations deteriorating democracy and in the midst of the ongoing
executive-legislature faceoff, in which a ranking senator of the APC
extraction identified Ekweremadu as a pillar of support to the Senate
President.
The PDP said that contrary to the Federal Government’s claims, Senator
Ekweremadu had assured it that he declared his assets.
It wondered why the Federal Government, by its own admission, rushed to
court without completion of investigation, but had turned deaf ears to the
outcry by Nigerians for the prosecution of the administrations
functionaries and friends indicted of corruption.
This government and party have a wet appetite for prosecution and media
trial of the opposition while investigation is on, but refuses to prosecute
its members and friends indicted by even its own presidential or
ministerial panels.
While members of the opposition are taken to court on stretchers, the
former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Engr. Babachir Lawal,
indicted by both the Senate and a presidential panel only got a pat on the
back.
“The APC Federal Government has failed to prosecute those involved in the
Ikoyigate scandal, and the recall of fugitive Abdulrasheed Maina, among
others.
Ekweremadu is a major symbol of the opposition. We believe that this is
part of the grand plan to strangulate the PDP ahead of the 2019 elections
and we will resist it added.
The PDP further alleged that Ekweremadus travail was part of the grand
plan to strangulate the opposition ahead of 2019 election and challenged
the Federal Government to publish the assets of APC political office
holders.
Now that the Federal Government has gleefully inundated the public with
the imaginary assets of the Deputy Senate president, can it now also
publish the full assets of the President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President
Yemi Osinbanjo, cabinet ministers and APC governors, who have all failed to
make public their assets as promised during the 2015 election