The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, has said that the federal government and its ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are desperate in their alleged bid to frame him up in corruption scandal.
In a statement signed by the special adviser to the PDP’s national chairman, Ike Abonyi, it said the allegations against Secondus were filled with contradictions and inconsistencies.
“In its desperation to forge documents and defame him (Secondus), they forgot to reconcile their lies. The Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammad and the EFCC couldn’t agree on the date of the purported money collection and whether it was collected by him Secondus or by a faceless fictional Chukwura that has no surname.
“While they may have embarked on a wide search since 2015 for the surname of the so called aide of the National Chairman, Alhaji Mohammed claimed in his press conference on Good Friday March 29th, 2018 that Secondus collected the money on 19th of February, 2015. EFCC on their part on April 16th, 2018, eighteen days after said the money was collected on February 9th, 2015 and in another version still quoting the same EFCC claimed February 2, 2015.”
The statement said the motive was to blackmail; and discredit Prince Secondus in order to distract him from carrying out the reform of his party, the PDP and to rescue Nigeria from the disaster called APC administration.
Secondus said it was tragic that anti-corruption agency like EFCC founded and nurtured by the PDP administration to tackle the issue of corruption in the system had to turn itself into a pawn in the hand of APC administration to witch hunt and harass perceived enemies of government just to impress and keep job.
He challenged the government and any agency that has anything against him to bring such evidence to the court and stop character assassination in the media.
“There’s no need to be talking about a case pending in court in the newspapers. If the government has anything to say, they should file it before the court as demanded.”
He challenged the government to come out with the vouchers with he was said to have signed, adding that such signature would also be subjected to forensic analysis.
“I never collected any money from anywhere. I didn’t ask anyone to collect money for me as well and I didn’t sign any voucher to collect any money. It is pure blackmail which will never work. If they are cooking up anything, with the aim of blackmailing me, it will fail. I know that the task of uprooting this non-performing government would be horrendous. But God is always on the side of the people,” he said.
He said no amount of cheap blackmail and treachery will return the APC from the exit gate where Nigerians already pushed them to, awaiting 2019.
“The departure date for the APC has already been announced and the flight schedule would not be cancelled, because Nigerians cannot wait to see them off.”
The statement said the PDP was not oblivious of the fact that the Buhari government does not believe in court because they see rule of law as antithetical to their own agenda and understanding of democracy, but noted that truth must prevail over lies and propaganda, especially as the populace have cried out to God for a rescue.