PDP alleges persecution of Ekweremadu in property forfeiture suit

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged persecution of
the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu in a property
forfeiture suit filed against him by the Federal Government.

In a statement on Thursday by the party’s National Publicity
Secretary, Kola Ologbodiyan, the PDP called on the government to
stop hounding members of opposition parties.

The federal government has approached the Federal High Court
seeking to seize some properties said to belong to the lawmaker but
which he failed to declare in documents he filed with the Code of
Conduct Bureau.

Some of the properties listed include houses said to b located
in the United Kinddom, United States, United Arab Emirates, Abuja
and Enugu.

But the PDP, in the statement, frowned at the Motion Exparte
filed by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the
Recovery of Public Property against Ekweremadu, saying it was part
of a plot to silence opposition elements.

The statement added that while the PDP was in full support of
any genuine anti-graft war, the All Progressives Congress (APC) –
led administration’s 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.

The party 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 no 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 Ekweremadu’s official
guest house in Abuja in May 2017 and blamed it on false
whistleblowers, which 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 Ekweremadu’s alarm and scathing criticism of the APC-led
administration over the nation’s 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 insisted 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
administration’s functionaries and friends indicted for
corruption.

“This government and party have the 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 traced Ekweremadu’s travails to attempts by the ruling
party to strangulate the opposition ahead of the 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 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”.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged persecution of
the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu in a property
forfeiture suit filed against him by the Federal
Government.

In a statement on Thursday by the party’s National Publicity
Secretary, Kola Ologbodiyan, the PDP called on the government to
stop hounding members of opposition parties.

The federal government has approached the Federal High Court
seeking to seize some properties said to belong to the lawmaker but
which he failed to declare in documents he filed with the Code of
Conduct Bureau.

Some of the properties listed include houses said to b located
in the United Kinddom, United States, United Arab Emirates, Abuja
and Enugu.

But the PDP, in the statement, frowned at the Motion Exparte
filed by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the
Recovery of Public Property against Ekweremadu, saying it was part
of a plot to silence opposition elements.

The statement added that while the PDP was in full support of
any genuine anti-graft war, the All Progressives Congress (APC) –
led administration’s 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.

The party 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 no 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 Ekweremadu’s official
guest house in Abuja in May 2017 and blamed it on false
whistleblowers, which 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 Ekweremadu’s alarm and scathing criticism of the APC-led
administration over the nation’s 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 insisted 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
administration’s functionaries and friends indicted for
corruption.

“This government and party have the 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 traced Ekweremadu’s travails to attempts by the ruling
party to strangulate the opposition ahead of the 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 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”.