Mr. Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy President of the Senate, has taken his travails over his alleged involvement in forgery, for which he is standing trial, to the United Nations, the European Union, the United States Congress, European Union (EU) Parliament, the United Kingdom and other foreign missions, seeking their help “to save Nigeria’s democracy.”
Ekweremadu, in a two-page letter to the international community on Tuesday, described his trial, alongside other top members of the Senate as an attempt to truncate Nigeria’s democracy.
The letter, titled “Re: Trumped-up Charges Against the Presiding Officers of the 8th Senate: Nigerian Democracy is in Grave Danger”, alleged that he was not undergoing prosecution as the government might want the world to believe, but ‘persecution’ aimed at silencing him as the highest ranking member of the opposition party in the country.
To give credence to his claims, the Deputy Senate President attached copies of the court summons and other documents relating to the matter, to his letter.
He urged the international community to decide whether or not the trial was justified, or borne out of political vendetta, just as he insisted on his innocence because neither his name nor that of the Dr. Bukola Saraki, President of the Senate, featured in the petition by the aggrieved members of the Senate’s “Unity Forum” or during the investigation of the petition by the police.
Ekweremadu’s letter read in part: “I wish to forward to you the court summons containing the trumped-up charges preferred against my person; the President of the Senate, His Excellency, Senator Bukola Saraki, CON; and two others.
“I also wish to appeal to you to kindly find time to read through the annexures – petition by members of the Senate Unity Forum, statements by persons interrogated, and the police report – to see if our name appeared anywhere in these documents.
“You may, thereafter, judge for yourself whether the Federal Government, acting through the Attorney-General of the Federation, has any justification whatsoever to generate our names for trial. The list of the accused persons appears to have been politically generated because you cannot by the documents attached, relate any of our names to the offence for which we are now being charged.
“Moreover, the rules and principles of fair hearing have not been adhered to because the police have not interacted with me or the President of the Senate as at the time of writing this letter.
“You may also wish to judge for yourself whether this trial orchestrated against me is not a political trial, calculated witch-hunt, barefaced intimidation, and a clear attempt to emasculate the parliament and silence me as the leader and highest ranking member of the opposition in Nigeria.
“Meanwhile, it could also be recalled that an attempt was made on my life on November 17, 2015. The Nigerian security agencies did nothing, even though the incident was duly reported.
“You may further wish to judge for yourself whether this unfolding scenario, coupled with the clampdown on the opposition, such as targeted arrests and indefinite detention of opposition figures and dissenting voices in spite of court pronouncements and in clear violation of the Nigerian Constitution, as well as the sustained marginalisation of the South-East and South-South geopolitical zones of Nigeria, does not constitute a grave danger to the nation’s hard-won democracy.
“This is for your information and reflection.”
Saraki, Ekweremadu and two other principal officers of the Senate were arraigned in court in Abuja on Monday. They were released on bail on self-recognition, as the case was adjourned to a later date for continuation of trial.
independentnig…….
This page has been viewed 278 times
