Igbo youths under the aegis of Ohanaeze Youth Council, has accused the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami of witch hunting and having a partisan interest in the ongoing trial of the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekwderemadu, and asked him to resign his appointment.
The group in a statement signed its National President, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, lamented that Malami, who was a lawyer to the Senate Unity Forum before his appointment as the AGF, desperately wants to ‘nail’ Ekweremadu at all cost.
Ohanaeze Youth council posited that Ekeremadu is being persecuted as a result of his Igbo origin and belonging to the opposition contrary to the wishes of a cabal who wants to render the National Assembly a rubber stamp.
“Having considered all the facts of the matter, Ohanaeze Youth Council is convinced that the Deputy Senate President- Senator Ike Ekweremadu, CFR, is being persecuted by the Federal Government using the instruments of the Judiciary. The AGF, Abubakar Malami has a personal interested in the ongoing trial of the Deputy Senate President and should resign his office. The AGF should desist from bringing his revered Office to disrepute by endlessly shopping for cooked-up evidence to bring down Ekweremadu and Saraki in order to render the legislature toothless. Abubakar Malami should honourably resign his office if he cannot separate his personal interest from national interest and the law.
“All available evidence points to the fact that Ekweremadu’s prosecution nay persecution is politically motivated because he is an Igbo man, belongs to President Buhari’s 5 per cent, he is a member of the opposition party, and emerged, along with the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki against the dictates of those who want to run the National Assembly from their bedrooms.
“We are not surprised that the AGF has written the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to conduct further investigation into the matter stating that the investigation was, in his word, “inconclusive”.
“This then justifies the harsh tone with which the AGF was reprimanded by Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja over what His Lordship termed a “gross abuse of legal process” and “desperate haste” to prosecute the case.
“Therefore, in the interest of national unity, we demand that the Federal Government refrain from political witch-hunting and ethnic persecution so as to bring everybody together to pull Nigeria out of the doldrums. At this moment when Nigerians are suffering intensely owing to economic recession, there is need for closer collaboration between all arms of Government and bipartisan co-operation borne out of patriotism. As such, the ruling party- the APC must work with the opposition party-the PDP to move Nigeria forward.”
The group called on Justice Haliru Yusuf of the FCT High Court to save the Judiciary from further embarrassment, and take a cue from Justice Kolawole’s ruling and strike out the case for lack of merit and abuse of court process.