PDP: APC PLOTTING TO ASSASSINATE EKWEREMADU

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that the traducers of Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president, in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have perfected plans to compromise his personal security and “take him out”. The party also said it is under “full frontal attack” from APC, and that the lives of its leaders were under threat. Speaking at a news conference in Abuja on Sunday, Olisa Metuh, PDP spokesman, said that the inspector-general of police (IGP) had invited Ekweremadu for interrogation over a bogus allegation of altering the standing rules of the senate. Metuh claimed that APC’s plan was to incriminate and incarcerate Ekweremadu so as to pave the way for his removal as deputy senate president. “We wish to alert all Nigerians and the international community that there is indeed a clear and present danger of threat to the lives of key opposition leaders in Nigeria,” he said.
“In the last few weeks, key PDP members have become an endangered group for playing their opposition role in providing constructive criticisms to the ruling party in their apparent lack of capacity to get organised and form a government; their interference in the activities of the national assembly and the demand for the implementation of their campaign promises to Nigerians. “As we address you today, some key leaders of our party have been under threat since the emergence of the leadership of the national assembly, which did not go the way of the leadership of the APC, particularly the election of PDP’s Senator Ike Ekweremadu as deputy senate president. “The leadership of the PDP has been made aware of various threats to life and other forms of intimidation and blackmail against Senator Ekweremadu from the APC. As you may know, the APC leaders have not hidden their bitterness and resentment towards Senator Ekweremadu, whose offence is the privilege ofvbeing elected by his colleagues (APC and PDP senators alike) as deputy senate president in line with the standing rules of the senate and the provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. “Since President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement that Senator Ekweremadu’s election was ‘unacceptable’ to his party, the deputy senate president, who can only be removed by the senate, has come under threats and intense pressure from APC leaders to resign and allow a senator from the ruling party to take his position. “However, having failed to get him to resign, the APC has now engaged in heinous plots to force him out of office, a design, which totally negates the independence of the legislature and the spirit and letters of the constitution of Nigeria. Apparently to ensure that the agenda is given an official stamp, the inspector-general of police, acting on instructions, has invited the deputy senate president with a view to arresting him over phantom charges as a buildup to incarcerate him, create a vacuum in the senate and pave way for the imposition of the APC-preferred senator to take over his position.” It added that some APC senators opposed to the emerge of Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as senate president and deputy senate president respectively met last week and concocted a petition accusing the deputy senate president of altering the senate rules on the process of election of the presiding officers, upon which the police, via a letter dated July 1, 2015 and signed by the deputy inspector-general in charge of criminal investigation at the force headquarters has invited him to appear on July 6, 2015, so that he will be detained and put under pressure. “Apart from the fact that the Nigerian Constitution clearly guarantees the two chambers of the national assembly, the powers to regulate their proceedings without external interference, we note that the petition by this group of senators who enjoy the sympathy of some APC leaders lacks merit, as Senator Ekweremadu or any other senator-elect prior to the inauguration of the senate and the election of presiding officers, could not have been involved in the process of producing the 2015 standing rules of the senate, which was strictly done by the bureaucracy under the clerk to the national assembly. “Furthermore, Senator Ekweremadu was not in any way involved in the process other than being nominated for the position of the deputy senate president and could not have been privy to the secret ballot procedure adopted by the national assembly bureaucracy, which has been widely adjudged as transparent and credible. “Also, apart from plans to use security apparatus against the deputy senate president, we have information that there are instructions to certain officials at the now National Electoral Commission to alter some electoral documents and records in order to create the impression that Senator Ekweremadu did not file proper documents for the general elections to eventually pave way for his removal.” Lai Mohammed, national publicity secretary of APC, was contacted to respond to PDP’s allegations, but he was unreachable.
-The Cable