APC, PDP Fight over Police Invitation to Ekweremadu

Mon, Jul 6, 2015
By publisher
4 MIN READ

BREAKING NEWS, Politics

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The All Progressives Party and the Peoples Democratic Party are engaged in war of words because the Nigerian Police invited Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president for questioning over an alleged tampering with Senate Rules

| By Maureen Chigbo | July 6, 2015 @ 3.00 GMT |

THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has alleged that the All Progressives Congress, APC, is using the Nigerian Police to harass Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate, president. Although the APC swiftly denied the allegation, it came barely 24 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari assured Nigerians on July 4, that his administration remains fully committed to providing a level playing field for all Nigerians to get on with their daily lives or participate in electing their leaders, without fear of intimidation.

But Olisa Metuh, national publicity secretary for PDP, cried foul on Sunday, July 5, alleging that the APC instigated the police to arrest Ekweremadu so he could be humiliated when he honours the invitation extended to him by the deputy inspector general of police, Criminal Investigations. He said the deputy inspector general of police signed the letter inviting Ekweremadu to appear in his office for questioning over forgery as contained in a fictitious petition purportedly sent to the Nigerian Police force alleging that he tampered with the Senate Standing Rules which enables him to contest and win election as senate president on June 9, which he won.

But Lai Mohammed, national publicity secretary, All Progressives Congress, APC, on Sunday,
said the party had nothing to do with the reported police’s invitation of Ekweremadu, over which the PDP has released an outlandish statement containing all sorts of imaginary claims. In a statement which was made available to Realnews, Mohammed said APC neither wrote a petition to the police nor is it aware that any petition was written against the Deputy Senate President.

”However, if, as the PDP claims, the petition concerns alleged altering of the Senate’s Standing Rules on the process of electing Presiding Officers, that is a clear case of forgery which the police have a duty to investigate. Questioning the right of the police to carry out their duties in this regard amounts to intimidating the security agency.

”Forgery is a crime that is being regularly investigated by the police, and it beggars belief that such investigation will now be interpreted to mean that Nigeria is descending into dictatorship or that democracy and the enjoyment of personal freedoms are now endangered. These claims by the scaremongering PDP are far-fetched and preposterous,” it said.
APC said if indeed there is a petition against Senator Ekweremadu, he should gladly heed the invitation by the police so he can clear his name, adding that no one is above the law.
”President Muhammadu Buhari has repeatedly said that at every point, the law must be supreme and everyone must respect the law, if the nation’s democratic system is to survive. Extrapolating a police invitation of anyone, no matter his status, to mean the onset of dictatorship is itself an invitation to lawlessness and anarchy, which permeated the long but ineffective rule of the PDP,” the party said.

Buhari on Saturday, July 5, told State chairmen of the All Progressives Congress, APC, at a parley in the Presidential Villa, that all cases of political assassinations, intimidation and kidnappings in the country must be thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators speedily brought to justice, irrespective of their political affiliations.

The President said that his administration would  continuously  strengthen Nigeria’s criminal justice system to curb the reign  of injustice and impunity in the country. “At every point, the law must be supreme and everyone must respect the law, if our democratic system is to survive,” he said.

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