Ekweremadu cries to UN, US, UK, EU over forgery trial

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu has taken the forgery case involving Senate President, Bukola Saraki; himself and others outside the shores of the country.

He called on the United Nations, US Congress, United Kingdom, European Union Parliament and foreign missions, to intervene in the case, describing it as portending great danger to Nigeria’s democracy.

He sent out a two-page letter, entitled: “Re: Trumped Up Charges Against the Presiding Officers of the 8th Senate: Nigerian Democracy is in Grave Danger,” with copies of the court summons attached, and other relevant documents relating to the matter.

Ekweremadu wrote that an institution as Nigeria’s National Assembly is under ridicule by President Muhammadu Buhari’s government and that the nation’s democracy was in grave danger.

According to him, the alleged forgery of Senate Standard Rules, for which they are being tried, was an attempt to tarnish Nigeria’s democracy and silence him as the leader and highest ranking opposition member in the country.

Ekweremadu argued that his name nor that of the President of the Senate were not after all featured either in the petition by embittered members of the Senate Unity Forum, SUF, or during the investigation of the petition by the police.

He wrote, “You may further wish to judge for yourself whether this unfolding scenario, coupled with the clampdown on the opposition, such as targeted arrests and indefinite detention of opposition figures and dissenting voices, in spite of court pronouncements and in clear violation of the Nigerian constitution, as well as the sustained marginalization of the South-East and South-South geopolitical zones of Nigeria, does not constitute a grave danger
to the nation’s hard-won democracy.

Read also: Forgery case: Nigeria on the road to perdition –Ekweremadu

“I wish to forward to you the court summons containing the trumped-up charges preferred against my person, the President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, CON; and two others.

“I also wish to appeal to you to kindly find time to read through the annexures— petition by members of the Senate Unity Forum, statements by persons interrogated, and the police report— to see if our names appeared anywhere in these documents.

“You may, thereafter, judge for yourself whether the Federal Government, acting through the Attorney-General of the Federation, has any justification whatsoever to generate our names for trial. The list of the accused persons appears to have been politically generated because you cannot by the documents attached, relate any of our names to the offence for which we are now being charged.

“Moreover, the rules and principles of fair-hearing have not been adhered to because the police have not interacted with me or the President of the Senate as at the time of writing this letter.

“You may also wish to judge for yourself whether this trial orchestrated against me is not a political trial, calculated witch-hunt, barefaced intimidation, and a clear attempt to emasculate the parliament and silence me as the leader and highest ranking member of the opposition in Nigeria.”

In their reactions, the Presidency said it would not bandy words with the Deputy Senate President as the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice also said it would not want to comment on the matter since it was in court.

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