Nigeria Sliding Fast Into Fascism Under Buhari- PDP…You Lack Moral Ground To Criticise, APC Replies

The Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) has described the ongoing trial of the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki by the Code of Conduct Tribunal, (CCT) over his alleged false assets declaration as part of an orchestrated plot to intimidate the National Assembly and perceived opponents of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

The Code of Conduct Bureau had, on September 11, filed a 13-count charge against Saraki before the Tribunal. According to the suit, Saraki is accused of failure to declare property on Plot 2A, Glover Road, Ikoyi, Lagos; failure to declare property on No 1, Tagus Street, Maitama, Abuja (Plot 2482, Cadastral Zone A06, Abuja) and failure to declare property No 3, Tagus Street, Maitama, Abuja (Plot 2481, Cadastral Properties Limited).

Others include his alleged claim to own property on No 42, Gerard Road, Ikoyi and earning N110, 000,000 per annum at a time the property was under construction; failure to declare N375m GTB loan converted to 1.5m Pound Sterling and used to purchase property in London; operating a foreign bank account; transfer of $3.4m from GTB to foreign bank account during his tenure as governor and failure to declare leasehold interest in No. 42, Remi Fani-Kayode Street, Ikeja. Saraki was also alleged to have made anticipatory asset declaration of a house in Ikoyi in his asset declaration form he submitted to the CCB in 2003.

Saraki has however denied the charges, saying that his trial is politically motivated and dictated by external forces. The PDP in a statement today signed by its national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh claimed the trial of Senator Saraki was part of the “relentless onslaught against democratic institutions” and further declared that the ” the nation is on a quick slide into fascism and official terrorism.”

Metuh further noted that the President Buhari-led regime has exhibited trappings of despotism, including “ruling without a constitutional component of a cabinet, persistent abuse of power, undermining of democratic institutions, invasion of state government and personal houses, injecting confusion into the judiciary and hounding of individuals perceived to be against its interests”.

It further described as a mockery of reasoning, for President Buhari to condemn the recent coup in Burkina Faso whilst his government continues to violate the provisions of the constitution of his own country.

According to the party “Ordinarily, the intra-party squabbles within the APC, regarding leadership positions in the Senate is not necessarily our concern. “Also, we are not interested in whether Senate President Bukola Saraki ran for the APC Presidential ticket against President Muhammadu Buhari; or whether he ran for the Senate Presidency against the advice of the President and his party. “Our concerns here are the prevailing executive intolerance, the undermining of the institution of the National Assembly and the overall threat to the survival of our democracy.

“Whereas the PDP totally supports the fight against corruption, while reposing confidence in the judiciary to protect and preserve its sanctity, we note with grave concern, the politically induced controversies within the judiciary, as a result of the part being played by agents of the executive, especially the question of due process with respect to the roles statutorily vested on the person of an Attorney-General, who is yet to be appointed, regarding proceedings in the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

“We note this dangerous trend because the Presidency and the APC have not hidden their aversion to the election of Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively, even as the fact of various moves to oust them from office, including the recent unsubstantiated allegations of forgery and harassments by the federal controlled security agencies are in the public domain.

“We call on Nigerians to be aware that the fixation on the leadership of the National Assembly is part of a major step towards the appropriation of the federal legislature, so as to undermine its statutory role of checks and balances and set the stage for dictatorship in the land. Part of this script is to commence a major onslaught against federal lawmakers perceived to hold divergent views to those of the Presidency, irrespective of party affiliations, a situation that would ensure a subdued legislature.”

It further accused the All Progressives Congress, (APC) led federal government of using the Department of State Services (DSS) to carry out what it called terrorism against democracy, in PDP controlled states. Also, similar machineries have been activated for possible forceful takeover of PDP states, a plot which played out in the recent act of terrorism against democracy, in the invasion of Akwa-Ibom state government house by the Department of State Services (DSS), under the direct instructions from the Presidency.

“We also recall July reprehensible invasion and sealing of Rivers local councils by the Police, who also barred members of caretaker committees that were duly appointed by the state government to take charge of the councils. The erosion of personal freedom of citizen also came to public glare in the invasion of the home of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki, against constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights and the rule of law.

“Furthermore, Nigerians are witness to the undue interferences of the Department of State Services in the activities of election tribunals in PDP controlled states of Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Delta, Abia, Taraba and others where electoral officers are being harassed, intimidated and detained, ostensibly to influence judgments against the PDP. We recall the show of intolerance in the venom and disparagement with which the APC-led administration in August, attacked our highly revered national leaders in the National Peace Committee, which has as members, former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, respected clerics; Archbishop John Onaiyekan and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kuka, retired justices of superior records, as well as other highly respected patriotic Nigerians, for daring to counsel Buhari’s government on some observed undemocratic tendencies and processes.

“It is therefore a mockery of reasoning for President Buhari to use choice words to condemn the coup in Burkina Faso whilst his government engages in brazen contravention of our own constitution, a development that is clearly derailing Nigeria from the path of order, democracy and constitutionalism. It is hence only appropriate that the President is called upon to focus on restoring proper democracy in Nigeria and end this drift towards dictatorship under the “new Sheriff’, an ominous undemocratic nomenclature introduced into our political space by the Presidency.

“We invite the international community and the civil society to note that our nation is facing a defining moment for the survival of democracy. Nigeria has come to a point where citizens, irrespective of political affiliations, can no longer freely express their views. We have fast descended from an environment of personal freedom and rule of law to an environment of muffled voices and suppression.

“Whereas we remain dedicated to our commitment in providing a robust and credible opposition, constructively offering alternatives to policies and programmes of the Federal Government, we restate in the strongest possible terms, that we shall not be cowed to abdicate our irrevocable resolution to defend our democracy, while resisting actions inimical to the stability and unity of our dear nation.”

In a swift response, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the PDP of openly launching a counter-offensive against the determined efforts of the Buhari Administration to rid the country of impunity and corruption, but warned that the opposition party will fail in its attempt to take Nigerians back to Egypt

”Saturday’s Press Statement by the PDP is nothing but a thinly-veiled frontal assault on the relentless efforts of the Buhari Administration’s to clean the Augean Stable of the last PDP Federal Government,” the party said in a statement issued in Lagos on Saturday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed

”With its statement that is nothing but an unabashed support for impunity and corruption, as well as its major actors, the PDP has now confirmed itself as the official ‘poster boy’ for corruption in Nigeria,” it said.

APC said the long-winding sophistry about the rule of law, democracy and personal freedoms is aimed at couching the PDP’s abhorrence and disdain for the fight against corruption in democratic cliches, especially now that the battle is gradually hitting the PDP where it hurts.

The party said that for the PDP’s National Publicity Secretary himself, the persistent onslaught against the Buhari Administration is neither altruistic nor informed by any belief in higher values, ”because the allegations of corruption hanging on his own neck, from within his own party, is a clear indication that he is mortally afraid that the wind will soon blow hard enough to expose the fowl’s rump”.

”Neither the PDP as a party nor its spokesman have the moral authority to condemn anyone, least of all a President that is working hard to rescue Nigeria from the abyss to which it has been plunged by the former ruling party.

”For the PDP to brush aside the latest revelation that a government it sired could not account for $700 million from the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), or the fact that the party could not account for billions of Naira in its own campaign funds, and then launch a frontal attack against a reformist government, is the height of shamelessness.

”For the ethically-challenged spokesman of the same morally-deficient party to continue to spew trash under the guise of opposition politics is totally provocative and absolutely unacceptable. Worse still, the lack of focus in the labyrinthine statements being issued by the opposition party has confirmed the prescience of the APC’s offer to the PDP’s spokesman to take a crash course in how to speak for the opposition,” it said.