I Barely 48 hours after he was granted bail by a Minna Court, Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Niger State, Alhaji Tanko Beji, said that his experience in incarceration toughened him politically.
Besides, he said that he was now prepared and ready for the worst come 2019 elections.
Beji was granted bail Friday after spending four days in the Minna medium security prison and nine days in detenmtion at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) cells Abuja over alleged embezzlement of public funds belonging to Niger State.
His words: “What has happened has made me stronger and prepared me for the task ahead.
“I am out now and I am ready for the political task ahead and other challenges.”
The state PDP chairman said that he saw what he had gone through in the past few weeks as part of the learning process in politics in a developing country like Nigeria and that he was destined to pass through the path with out which he wouldn’t have learnt.
Beji however said, “I hold no grudge against anybody. I believe in destiny and faith as a Muslim. I have been destined to toe this line; there is nothing anyone can do about it. What goes around must always come around”.
The PDP chieftain nevertheless counseled politicians and political office holders on the need to desist from what he termed, ‘witch-hunting and intimidation of opponents’, because doing so amounts to a rape of democracy.
Beji admonished PDP supporters in Niger State and across Nigeria not to be “Intimidated by the clamp down on our leaders, instead what is happening should strengthen us as a viable opposition force for the great task ahead”.
The state PDP chairman who is also a lawyer expressed gratitude to all those that stood by him during his travails especially members of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), the media, “Our party supporters and my immediate family and distant relations”.