By Valentine Amanze
The Office of the Deputy President of the Senate has said that Senator Ike Ekweremadu was not involved in the alleged forging of the Senate Standing Orders 2011.
It also stated that the senator has no business with the production of the Senate Standing Orders.
Uche Anichukwu, the
Special Adviser (Media) to Deputy President of the Senate, stated this, while responding to the purported forgery suit against the lawmaker.
He said that the latest attempt to try and convict Ekweremadu in the court of public opinion was strange, stressing, “we do not want to mount a public defence. We would rather meet them in court if they so wish.”
While pleading with the senator’s supporters to maintain the peace and go about their normal businesses unperturbed, the imagemaker reassured them that no form of intimidation and onslaught to rubbish Ekweremadu would make him shy away from diligently carrying out the constitutional duties, which his constituency and Senators representing every part of Nigeria, lawfully elected him on June 9, 2015 to perform for the good and development of Nigeria. He assured supporters that Ekweremadu would not legislate in fear, and he would certainly not fear to legislate.
“If an attempt on his life on November 17, 2015 (which there are no facts or information to show that the police investigated an incident of such magnitude duly reported to them) did not deter him, certainly not even a purported police invitation, lawsuit, propaganda, and intimidation would cow him because Nigeria belongs to all of us, irrespective of our different political, ethnic, and religious leanings,” he said.
Anichukwu also pointed out that in July 2015, the Police spokesperson told the world (and it is on record) that the NPF did not invite Senator Ekweremadu for questioning and that the NPF did not at any time question him over the forged Senate Standing Orders.
“We are, therefore, as surprised as other Nigerians at the current twists and turns by the same police one year after and also after they had since submitted to the Attorney General of the Federation, their investigation report, which neither indicted nor even made the slightest mention of Senator Ike Ekweremadu. Moreso that the petitioners never named Ekweremadu in their petition in the first instance.
“We wish to state that we read the reports of the so-called police invitation and charges allegedly preferred against Senator Ekweremadu; the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki; and others on the pages of the newspapers like other Nigerians.
“Even as we try to reconcile the reports of the simultaneous police invitation and court processes, nobody has, till date, served the Deputy President of the Senate any letter of invitation by the police or court summons.
The office or person of the Deputy President of the Senate is not in the moon. The concerned authorities know how and where to reach Senator Ekweremadu if they want to,” he said.