In a two-page letter, entitled: “Re: Trumped Up Charges Against the Presiding Officers of the 8th Senate: Nigerian Democracy is in Grave Danger,”
deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, has called for intervention of
the United Nations, U.S Congress, United Kingdom, European Union
Parliament and foreign missions, saying a powerful institution as the
National Assembly was being ridiculed and rubbished by President
Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
This international letter is coming barely 24 hours after the
arraignment of Senate President, Bukola Saraki; his deputy, Senator Ike
Ekweremadu, and others for alleged forgery of 2015 Senate Standing Rules
in an Abuja High Court.
The deputy senate president who noted that the nation’s democracy
was in grave danger, said their trial for forgery of Senate Standard
Rules was an attempt to truncate Nigeria’s democracy and silence him as
the leader and highest ranking member of the opposition party in the
country.
Ike Ekweremadu, who attached copies of the court summons, and other
relevant documents relating to the matter, is asking the international
community to decide whether or not the trial was worth it, justifiable
or one that was purely borne out of political vendetta.
The letter read:
“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.
“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.
“Meanwhile, it could also be recalled that an attempt was made
on my life on November 17, 2015. The Nigerian security agencies did
nothing, even though the incident was duly reported.
"This is for your information and reflection.”
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