The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu has called on the United Nations, European Union, EU, to intervene in the alleged forgery of Senate rule leveled against him and the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, alleging that there is an attempt to silent him because he is a member of the Peoples Democratic party, PDP.
The Federal Government had on Monday arraigned Ekweremadu, Saraki, alongside the former clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa and the deputy clerk, Benedict Efeturi before Justice Yusuf Halilu of a Federal Capital territory High Court for alleged forgery of Senate rule in 2015.
Ekweremadu in the letter also addressed to the US Congress, United Kingdom, European Union Parliament and foreign missions titled: “ Trumped Up Charges Against the Presiding Officers of the 8th Senate: Nigerian Democracy is in Grave Danger,” alleged that the Federal Government “politically generated” the names for trial.
The deputy Senate President claimed that the Police did not mention their names anywhere in their report.
The letter reads, “I wish to forward to you the court summons containing the trumped up charges preferred against my person; the president of the senate, His Excellency, 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 appear 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 to 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.
Ekweremadu further alleged that in November 17, 2015 an attempt was made on his life and the Nigerian security agencies did nothing, “even though the incident was duly reported,” he added.
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