Ekweremadu’s Constituents Accuse FG of Political Persecution

• Hold protest rally
• APC asks deputy senate president to retract letter to UN, EU

By Christopher Isiguzo in Enugu

Over 3000 youths, old men, women traditional rulers and politicians from Enugu West senatorial zone yesterday rose in defence of the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, over his ongoing trial for alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Order and Rules, accusing the federal government of deliberate attempt to silent the lawmaker and by extension, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The rampaging crowd which spoke during a solidarity rally for Ekweremadu at the Enugu West senatorial headquarters, Awgu, Awgu Local Government Area said the ongoing trial was nothing short of “political persecution,” vowing however to resist any attempt to oust Ekweremadu from his present position.

They marched round the local government secretariat from where they moved to the constituency office of the member representing Awgu-Aninri-Oji-River federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Toby Okechukwu, to formally present their grievances. Ekweremadu represents the zone in the senate.

After the protest rally, where they brandished placards with different inscriptions and sang solidarity songs, they marched back to the local government field where a prominent traditional ruler from Okpanku and former Director General of the Nigeria Defence Academy, Prof. Sam Ukpabi, presented an address on behalf of the people.

Some of the placards carried inscriptions such as: ‘The life wire of Igbo should not be harassed by the Buhari-led Federal Government-Enough is enough’, ‘The Enugu West people will resist any attack against Ikeoha’, ‘Dictatorship of the executive-let separation of power prevail’, ‘Our son Dr. Ike Ekweremadu and Senate leadership are on course’, ‘Ekweremadu keep your good work’, ‘Ekweremadu is the real man for democracy’ and ‘Federal Government should leave the legislature alone’

Ukpabi, in his address, stated that stakeholders in the senatorial zone had reviewed the state of the nation, especially the “political bitterness, nepotism, hatred and crushing economic hardship, with a narrow cabal in the All Progressives Congress (APC),” and resolved to condemn the “politically motivated persecution” of the Deputy Senate President, Ekweremadu, on trumped up charges of forgery.

“While the current political persecution has not come to us as a surprise, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) is yet to tell the world how he generated the names of Senators Ekweremadu and Bukola Saraki for trial, when the petitioners, all senators and National Assembly bureaucrats interrogated by the police, and indeed the police report itself, did not mention or indict Ekweremadu or Saraki in any way,” he stated.

While calling on the APC-led federal government to as a matter of urgency refrain from the alleged culture of political persecution, the people declared that Ekweremadu was elected with an overwhelming mandate both as a senator and deputy Senate president and his election did not violate known convention, practice or the nation’s constitution.

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has told Ekweremadu to retract his letter written to the international community over his ongoing forgery trial alongside Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and two others.

The party insisted that by taking what should be an internal affair of the country to the outside world, the lawmaker had tarnished the image of Nigeria and by extension, the president.

The party’s Vice Chairman in Enugu State, Chief Anike Nwoga, who spoke at a rally held by party members in Awgu town in the state, insisted that the letter was out of place.

The APC rally where the forgery trial of the senate leaders reared its ugly head again was held shortly after a procession of pro-Ekweremadu group under the aegis of Enugu West Stakeholders led by Professor Sam Ukpabi.

Notable among other top APC chieftains at the rally were the Deputy State Chairman, A.C. Ude; party Woman Leader, Lolo Queen Nwankwo; Chief Flavour Eze who represented the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Special Assistant to the President on Justice Reform, Julie Ibekaku; Director General, Voice of Nigeria, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, and Mrs. Sharon Ikeazor.

Addressing the rally, Nwoga urged Ekweremadu to desist from insulting the President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to him, Ekweremadu should retract the “desperate” letter he wrote to the international community because it is at variance with the oath of office he did solemnly swear, to be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and always act in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, solidarity, wellbeing and prosperity of the country.

“By this unwarranted letter, he has desecrated the constitution, tarnished the image of Nigeria and by extension, our dear president. As a senior lawyer, we had expected him to maintain his earlier statement that he has faith in Almighty God and the Nigerian courts” the APC chieftain said.

Nwoga made it clear that President Buhari had no hand in Ekweremadu’s travails, stressing that the charge against Saraki and Ekweremadu followed complaints by members of the Senate Unity Forum that the election of the two did not follow the 2011 Standing Orders of the Senate and that at no time did the seventh and eighth Senate amend Senate rules to produce the purported 2015 Senate Rules used for their election.

“Where is President Buhari in this matter? How is democracy being threatened? Why is he panicky, without exhausting the court process? Senator Hilary Clinton, presumptive presidential candidate of the Democratic Party in the United States, is being tried over her email issue, has she written to United Nations or Nigeria?” he asked.

Following scanty murmuring from the crowd, Nwoga asked rhetorically: “If our big brother was politically correct, why is it that the President of the Senate, Saraki, did not write to the UN, USA, UK and EU?

“Truly, after careful analysis, I am yet to locate where the rule of law is breached. Judgment has not been delivered nor doctrine of separation of powers infracted upon to warrant an assault on the Nigerian state by a high official of the state. Accordingly, I advise my dear brother to retract the letter forthwith,” Nwoga said.

The Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Okechukwu, appealed to Ohaneze, Afenifere, Ijaw National Congress (INC), and by extension, all the agitators for restructuring or separation to agitate and negotiate for critical physical and social infrastructure with President Buhari rather than the current way of agitation for restructuring or outright secession.

“For the avoidance of doubt, one is not against the trimming of the Exclusive Legislative list in the 1999 Constitution, so as to shed some federal powers to the states and local government councils.

“I am in the same page with the age long adage of our great ancestors, which interalia, ‘if you don’t know where the rain started, you may not find a solution to the drench’. Therefore, with hindsight, the causative factor which regrettably simulated the current heightened agitation for restructuring or secession is crass and unbridled corruption. Let’s join the president to kill corruption.

“Dear compatriots, let’s not forget the common knowledge that if the successive regimes had revamped our decayed physical and social infrastructure, if they had not squandered our commonwealth and if they had not promoted ethnicity and religion; today no Nigerian could have been bothered by who is Chief of Army Staff or Inspector General of Police,” Okechukwu said.