Judicial process not a clampdown –Keyamo
Beyond the need to ensure prosecution of persons indicted of committing crimes, the opposition has said that the renewed offensive against corruption and other crimes levelled against prominent politicians might be part of a clampdown on those who pose a threat to President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election bid or are opposed to some government’s policies
Chairman Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator (Chief) Peter Nwaoboshi, has said the prosecution of some members of the National Assembly was because they are part of the ground movement to stop dictatorship in Nigeria by resisting some activities of the executive.
But Director media and publicity, Buhari’s Campaign Organisation, Mr. Festus Keyamu, has insisted that clampdown is military action and should not be misconstrued with simple judicial process. “Without reference to a case, clampdown is a military term which refers to arresting and locking up people without trial, and that is not a practice in democracy.
“Taking somebody through judicial process in respect of any case cannot, by any stretch of imagination a clampdown. So I can tell you that the there is a misclassification by those making the claim. It is a lie,” he said.
Also weighing in, All Progressives Congress (APC) Spokesman in Lagos State, Chief Joe Igbokwe said those making such allegations were driven by guilt.
“Only the guilty is afraid. Anyone who has stolen Nigeria’s money or is involved in any criminal act should be prepared to face the law. If he is innocent the courts will set him free. We are enforcing the laws of the country and recovering loots. President Buhari does not need to clampdown on anyone to get re-elected. Buhari’s achievements will speak for him in the next elections,” he said.
Nwaobosi, who is standing trial over a N1.2 billion fraud allegation, said: “The truth of the matter is that I am one of those in the Senate that are defending the institution of the National Assembly and resisting perceived dictatorship. They threatened to deal with me. They started by including my names in their looters’ list.
“I supported the bid to ensure that the rule of law prevails over dictatorship. Does it sound too good hearing for somebody to say (Senator Bukola) Saraki, the number three citizen of this country, is involved in armed robbery? This is a man who rose in politics to serve as a two-term governor, contested for the Senate again to represent his people and won.
“His colleagues again found him worthy to emerge as Senate President. Is that not a blatant frame up? That is the dictatorship we are opposing in a democratic dispensation. They threatened to deal with me for being a bridge between the Senate President Saraki and the good people of the South-South and South-East geo-political blocs. For this reason, they included me as one of the looters in Nigeria…”
Nwaobosi also alleged that EFCC operatives said they would deal with him because he was one of those opposed to the confirmation of their chairman as a substantive head of the anti-graft agency.
Recent police invitation of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to answer criminal allegation against him by the 22-man Offa gang robbery, led by Ayodele Akinnibosun, who attacked five banks and killed about 30 people, including nine others, and mentioned Saraki as their political sponsor, has been seen as one of such.
Observers have argued that while the police have investigative and prosecutorial powers, “the frenetic manner” they are carrying out the current investigations amounts to media trial which raises suspicion.
In recent times, law enforcement agencies have become upbeat about investigating and prosecuting politicians like Senators Dino Melaye and Shehu Sani, over allegations that they sponsored thugs who had named them in different cases of attempted murders.
A top politician said that many “prominent politicians in the ruling APC like Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun and the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and several governors have endorsed President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election bid.
“Even Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Almakura, has threatened to go to court to compel the former to take another shot at the office, because “it is his fundamental human right. But none of those endorsements have come from the leadership of the National Assembly,” he said, adding that this has been “fuelled by allegations that Saraki is nursing presidential ambitions.”
Another source also claimed that the current onslaught against Saraki may have been informed by apprehension that he is a threat to President Buhari’s ambition.
“They know that if anybody can go into the presidential race and stop or decimate the incumbent’s popularity, Saraki is the one.
“They also recognise the fact that he commands a lot of support in the party and if he chooses to pull out of the APC, he will drag a number of prominent leaders along. They know he has a firm grip of the National Assembly. The third, of course is that they hold personal grudges against him as a result of the 2015 election of the leadership of the National Assembly,” the source said.
Otherwise, he asked: “Why has he been the focus of vicious persecution in the name of prosecution over time? First it was an allegation over forgery of National Assembly rules, followed by the CCT case over alleged non-declaration of assets and now this?”
He said recent reduction of DSS operatives and policemen attached to Senator Saraki and Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, was part of the plot and might be a dress rehearsal of things to come. “The National Assembly leadership may lose its security protection, in a manner Aminu Tambuwal was stripped of security aides in 2014 following his defection, even as Speaker of the House elected on the platform of the PDP to the APC. If that happens, the Assembly leadership might resort to private security operatives for protection, as done even by some governors in the run-up to the 2015 elections,” he said.
Penultimate Friday, former President Olusegun Obasanjo alleged that reliable security sources informed of plans to implicate him and many prominent politicians who have been placed on watch list in a “predictable charge pattern” because of their stance on the 2019 presidential elections.
As if supporting this fear, National Coordinator, Nigeria National Interest, Mr. Osas J. Alile, has warned that the Federal Government should not pull wool over the eyes of Nigerian over the alarm raised by former President Obasanjo, stating that feelers have indicated of government’s list of “all their Gestapo and desperate actions abound.”
The Kaduna-based group said: “Is this not a government that just a few days ago attempted to rope the Senate President Saraki with murder, going to the absurd level of accusing him via a press conference all in a bid to continue the insensitive agenda of shaming all Nigerians with opposing views to the government?
.new telegraph