Following the defeat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the last Presidential election after 16 years in government, strong indications have emerged that the ruling All Progressives congress (APC) has literally caged elected officials on the platform of PDP.
It was gathered that with some of the cases still pending at the Election Petition Tribunals and the Court of Appeal, most elected PDP lawmakers, especially at the Senate and House of Representatives who, ordinarily, would have been very vocal as those in opposing, lampooning the ruling APC, have kept mum.
According to a source, apart from some elected persons in PDP, like Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, many fear to be hunted using the courts or the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against them.
A source disclosed that with the way and manner the Court of Appeal was going with election cases, it was better for them to remain silent and continue with the job of lawmaking. For instance, some cited the cases of Benue State ruling where there was call for a re-run in Benue South Senatorial district to hurt former Senate president David Mark who has not even criticized the present government; another rerun in Abia North where Senator Mao Ohuabunwa has been representing as well as Uche Ekwunife in Anambra Central, George Sekibo from Rivers East, among others.
A senator who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “The rulings in the courts to frustrate elected PDP lawmakers are alarming; look at former Senate president David Mark whose case was not with figures, but dates; look at Anambra Central, look at Abia North, look at the Taraba ruling and the removal of Senator George Sekibo. We are worried that the ruling party wants to cage us. We are afraid to talk. It may be the turn of another person. It is better to keep quiet in this case. Look at Rivers, look at Kogi, Bayelsa; we are afraid.”
Meanwhile, it was gathered Friday how former president Goodluck Jonathan’s men bungled the Bayelsa State gubernatorial election, with alleged plans to do same in Rivers State.
The Bayelsa poll was seen as an opportunity to get a platform to teach APC a lesson. But it appears in retrospect to end up favouring the APC governorship candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva who is now looking like set for victory before the Independent national Electoral Commission (INEC) cancelled the results from Ijaw South Local Government Area.
According to a source, the whole idea was hatched by ex-militant leaders who have been beneficiaries of the former president but have been de-robed of what some persons described as their larger-than-life posture, with no more influence at the centre. A very influential ex-militant who was very powerful then is now being hunted by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
His accounts were frozen by the Federal Government over alleged financial dealings with links to some past officials of the government who are now under watch and one of them now on trial.
The source noted that a deadlier scenario might play out in Rivers State once the governor’s appeal is lost and a fresh election ordered to hold; the implication would be a looming fresh Niger Delta struggle that might deplete the nation’s economic resources.
According to the source, one of them, a former Special Adviser was yet to honour an EFCC summons, from abroad on medical grounds. But the government was on his trail to a neighbouring West African nation where he was said to have donated handsomely to the election project of the incumbent president.
The propaganda being peddled was that APC was anti-Ijaw and that explains why the Federal Government was going after Ijaws who served under Jonathan; however, the real truth is the loss of influence and the issue of the frozen accounts and the investigation of allies of the leader of the ex-militants.
-Vanguard
