Arrest of Kano legislators: Clear case of political vendetta by a desperate govt - APC
The
All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the arrest of the
Speaker, Clerk and nine members of the Kano State Legislature by the
EFCC as an undisguised case of political vendetta by a hurting
presidency, whose target is actually
the State Governor.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party saidsince the arrest of the lawmakers for carrying out their statutory duty of approving a budget cannot be justified by any law,it is clear to all discerning Nigerians that the only motive can only be to harass and intimidate the lawmakers of a state thatrecently escaped from the hell-hole called the PDP to join the APC.
It
said the politically-motivated arrest also undoubtedly marked the
beginning of the long-expected series of persecution by a desperate
Federal Government, against APC states, in particular those states that
have recently ducked from the cascading PDP plague.
APC
therefore called for the immediate release of the legislators by the
malleable EFCC, which has suddenly found enough resources from its
dried-up coffers to go after innocent men, when the same commission has
looked the other away while monumental corruption stalked the land,
whether it is the Oduahgate, the fuel subsidy scam or the SURE-P heist,
just to list a few.
''Nowhere
in the world are lawmakers arrested for carrying out their
constitutional-mandated role of approving a budget. The world must be
having a good laugh at the lack of ingenuity by a government that is so
eager to extract a pound of flesh from supposed political enemies that
it would orchestrate arrests for offences unknown to law.
''The
allegation that Gov. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s supplementary budget was
meant to cover-up a dubious transaction due to a budget review request
to the State Assembly to the value of 28 billion Naira, from the initial
budget of 24 billion Naira, is as spurious as it is laughable, just as
the EFCC’s claim that the arrest followed a petition by a stakeholder in
the state is questionable.
''The
tragedy of the unfolding scenario, which will surely extend to other
APC states in the days ahead, is that a democratically-elected
government is toeing the well-worn vindictive path of a military
dictatorship by harassing and intimidating supposed opponents and
stifling the opposition. The Gestapo-style siege on the Kano House of
Assembly is a throwback to what Nigerians thought was a bygone era of
military dictatorship. We hate to say it, but we have been proven right
in our warning in October 2013 that the President was using Rivers State
to test-run fascism. Now, he seems ready to roll,'' the party said.
It
vowed to use all constitutional means to resist any attempt to use the
institutions of state against the opposition; to use trumped-up charges
to victimize perceived political opponents, and to curtail the citizens'
constitutionally-sanctioned right of free association
''From
the moment Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was dragged before the Code of
Conduct Tribunal over a case that lacked merit in every sense to the
arrest of Sule Lamido's sons and the grounding of Gov. Chibuike
Amaechi's plane, the Jonathan Administration has not relented in its
search for any crude measure to badger the opposition and perceived
opponents to submission.
''But
if history is any guide, no force is good enough to stop an idea whose
time has come and, for us at the APC, the cheap shots from a diminished
presidency and the evil machinations of a crumbling behemoth called the
PDP can only serve to strengthen our resolve to rescue Nigeria from the
clutches of both entities, which are steeped in medieval tactics of
coercion, even as governance has suffered a crushing neglect,'' APC said
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