The Congress of Nigeria’s Political Parties (CNPP) and Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) have yesterday lent their voices to the calls to set aside the trial of the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
The two political groups made their positions in signed statements jointly issued to the press in Ilorin said the trial of Saraki before the CCT was borne out of political vendetta and therefore not a fight against corruption as the initiators of the trial wanted the public to believe.
IPAC in its statement noted that “what is happening in the political arena as far as the senate presidency is concerned is nothing short of tyrannical rule of one strong pillar of the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), who only wants his men in all strategic positions of government and party.
“Any democratic dispensation that practices such is nothing short of dictatorship and nepotism.
“This is definitely an action that any Nigeria who values the norms of democracy would not adopt while some people are running the nation’s affairs like their domestic affairs. We should not allow the ”man“ to die in us while someone takes the pride in riding us rough-shod away from the kind of political ideology we cast our votes for.
“In all advanced democracies of the world where the bi-camera legislature is practiced,the members of the hallowed chambers reserved the right to elect whoever they like to lead them,hence the unwholesome dictation from the party god-fathers should not override the interest of members of the legislators”.
“The senate president should no longer be compelled to appear before the CCT since he has his team of erudite lawyers representing him.
“The charges should be reviewed to eliminate all areas of witch-hunting,vilification and persecution in view of the fact that the said declaration had been legally logged over 10 years ago,”it submitted.
The CNPP in its own statement stated that “we in the CNPP are of the valid opinion that the same treatment given to Asiwaju Tinubu then has become a veritable “reference point” that has become entrenched as a valid precedent for similar cases that emerges thereafter.
“We therefore categorically say no to the continued castigation and victimisation of the person of the senate president on those trump up allegations if all Nigerians would not continue to view it as a ploy hatched by some political heavy-weights in the APC to taint the dazzling image of Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki (CON) and thus take away his legitimate claim to the highly coveted seat of the number three citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
Chairman of IPAC Alhaji Adebayo Lawal his Secretary and Hon Dave Ifabiyi, signed for their group while CNPP’s statement was signed by its Secretary, Prince Olufemi Adeleke.
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