It therefore noted that since the police had earlier denied
inviting or interrogating Ekweremadu, while the federal government also backed
its charges against the duo with an Affidavit of Completion of Investigation
deposed to at the Federal High Court Registry, Abuja and dated June 10, 2016,
it was “a clear case of witch-hunt, mischief, and a legal contradiction” to
want to purport to invite Ekweremadu and other persons for interrogation when
the Federal Government had already filed charges based on the Police Report.
“The most annoying part of the whole thing is the reported recent letter to the
CNA tagged ‘reminder’ and also referring to a purported letter of July 2015.
You can only remind what has been earlier attempted or requested; and if you
said you did not invite them, what then are you reminding?” the Centre queried.
Wondering the difficulty in sending an invitation to Saraki,
Ekweremadu, Senator David Mark and others directly instead of pretending to
invite them through the Clerk, the Centre contended that it was untoward to
file criminal charges against people on serious allegation as forgery without
any active attempt to extract statements from them.
“It is even worse to try to obtain from the back door a
statement after you have filed charges, because it shows somebody is desperate
to nail somebody”, Oji further said.
“From what they have filed at the court and the police
report, there is no statement that Saraki or Ekweremadu made on the alleged
forgery; there is no particular role those interrogated accused Saraki or
Ekweremadu of playing in the alleged forgery. Even the Senate unity Forum did
not mention them in their petition. So, how did the Office of the
Attorney-General of the zero in on Saraki and Ekweremadu?
“And if you are talking about the leadership of the 7th
Senate, Ekweremadu was not the Senate President or the Senate Majority Leader
or Chairman of the Committee on Business and Rules. So, why is every other
member of the leadership of the 7th Senate missing? Again, was Saraki a member
of the leadership of the 7th Senate?” the Centre queried.
Mazi insisted that it was evident the Federal Government was
desperate to put Ekweremadu in the dock in order to cripple the senate, noting
that “each time Saraki goes to attend to his case at the Code of Conduct
Tribunal, Ekweremadu presides. Now there is no way Ekweremadu will be facing
trial alongside Saraki that the Senate will function.
“It is therefore a ploy to destabilize the Senate and compel
Senators to do away with Saraki and Ekweremadu to avoid a vacuum or shut down.
But, as a matter of common sense, if Senators feel their Standing Rules were
amended irregularly or that its current leadership was fraudulently elected, it
is up to them to impeach their leaders, not for the executive or the courts to
meddle in Senate’s internal affairs.
“Funny enough, members of the Senate Unity Forum not only
submitted themselves to be inaugurated, with Saraki presiding, they also
accepted appointments into juicy Committees under the same leadership. They use
and quote from the purported forged Standing Orders every day”, he reasoned.
The group stated that there were fears that Senator
Ekweremadu was also being persecuted for condemning the alleged massacre of
pro-Biafra demonstrators by Nigerian security forces, whereas Ekweremadu had
always condemned such killings in other parts of the country.
Recalling the detention of Femi Fani-Kayode and alleged
harassment of Governor Ayodele Fayose, he cautioned the federal government to
desist from further clamp down on the leading voices of the opposition.
The Executive Director called on the federal government to
focus on the many challenges facing the nation rather than engage in “useless
with-hunt”.
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