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‘They Are Trying To Silence Me’: Ekweremadu Writes UN, US, UK, EU, Foreign Parliments

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Dr. Ike Ekweremadu, Nigeria’s deputy senate president on Tuesday, June 28, 2016 wrote a two-page letter to the United Nations, European Union, United States’ Congress, European Union Parliament, Governments of United States, United Kingdom and other foreign missions, over his forgery trial.

The PDP senator said that the case was an attempt by the federal government to silence him as the leader and highest ranking member of the opposition in the country. Ekweremadu also said that the Buhari government was attempting to truncate Nigeria’s democracy.

Dr. Ekweremadu’s letter follows his  arraignment at a federal high court in Abuja along with the senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki and two others on allegations of forging the Senate Standing Rules which government the election of both men into positions of leadership in the 8th Nigerian senate.

Senator Bukola Saraki in a statement on Monday reiterated his innocence and that of Ekweremadu of the charges filed by the attorney-general of the federation. He also said that the action by the federal government was a violation of the principle of the separation of powers between the executive and the legislature as enshrined in the nation’s constitution.

The document was entitled: “Re: Trumped up charges against the presiding officers of the 8th Senate: Nigerian Democracy is in Grave Danger.”

Ekweremadu attached copies of the court summons and other relevant documents relating to the matter to his letter.

The deputy senate president noted that he wanted the international community, to “after perusing the facts before them, decide whether or not the trial was justified, or one purely borne out of political vendetta.”

Ekweremadu insisted that neither his name nor that of the president of the senate, featured in the petition filed by the aggrieved members of the Senate Unity Forum (SUF) or during the investigation of the petition by the police.

Part of the letter is reproduced below:

“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.

“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.  Judge for yourself.

“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.

“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.”

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