Deputy Senate President Ekweremadu writes UN, US Congress, EU, Others | Says “there is a clear attempt to silence me”

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu has taken the alleged forgery case brought against him, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki,  and two others outside the shores of Nigeria.

In a letter to the United Nations (UN), United States Congress, European Union (EU), and other international organisations, titled: “Re: Trumped Up Charges Against the Presiding Officers of the 8th Senate: Nigerian Democracy is in Grave Danger,” Ekweremadu said that there is a clear attempt to silence him as the leader and highest ranking member of the opposition party – People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

He said that the federal government “politically generated” the names for trial, noting that there was no where in the police report where any of their names were mentioned.

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 names 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 appear 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 to 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.

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 marginalization of the South-East and South-South geopolitical zones of Nigeria, does not constitute a grave danger to the nation’s hard-won democracy.

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.

This is for your information and reflection.

Credit: Vanguard