NASS Crisis: APC plans Ekweremadu’s arrest today, PDP alleges

...as IGP denies allegations

*We have nothing to do with Deputy Senate President’s invitation-APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has plotted to effect the arrest of the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu by the police today (Monday) over alleged forgery.

The PDP’s Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, who addressed a press conference on Sunday in Abuja, said to achieve the aim, the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, has invited Ekweremadu to report at the Force Headquarters in Abuja on Monday after which he would be detained.

Metuh said the APC leadership is not happy with the emergence of Ekweremadu, a PDP member, as the Deputy Senate President and that after several attempts to make him resign, has now resorted to underhanding tactics.

He said since President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement that Ekweremadu’s election was ‘unacceptable’ to his party, the Deputy Senate President, who can only be removed by the Senate, has come under threats and intense pressure from APC leaders to resign and allow a senator from the ruling party to take his position.

“We are aware that some APC senators opposed to the emergence of Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively met last week and concocted a petition accusing the Deputy Senate President of altering the Senate Rules on the process of election of the Presiding Officers, upon which the police via a letter dated July 1, 2015 and signed by the Deputy Inspector General in charge of criminal investigation at the Force Headquarters has invited him to appear tomorrow, Monday, July 6, 2015 where he will be detained and put under pressure,” he said .

Metuh said apart from the fact that the Nigerian Constitution clearly guarantees the two chambers of the National Assembly the powers to regulate their proceedings without external interferences, the alleged petition by the APC senators who he said enjoy the sympathy of some APC leaders, lacks merit.

He said Ekweremadu or any other senator-elect prior to the inauguration of the Senate and the election of presiding officers, could not have been involved in the process of producing the 2015 Standing Rules of the Senate, which was strictly done by the bureaucracy under the Clerk to the National Assembly.

“Senator Ekweremadu was not in any way involved in the process other than being nominated for the position of the Deputy Senate President and could not have been privy to the secret ballot procedure adopted by the National Assembly bureaucracy, which has been widely adjudged as transparent and credible,” he said.

“In line with the above plot, the APC has been having secret meetings with some judges and lawyers to procure injunctions to prevent Senator Ekweremadu from playing his role as the Deputy Senate President.

“We are also aware that part of the plot is a conspiracy to tarnish Senator Ekweremadu’s image and open him to public ridicule.

“Last Monday, some APC leaders met in Abuja to perfect a plot to blackmail the Deputy Senate President by planting outlandish publications against him in the media,” Mr. Metuh said.

The PDP spokesperson said the Federal Government and APC leaders should be held responsible should any harm come upon the Deputy Senate President or any of its leaders.

Meanwhile, the Police and the APC yesterday denied the allegation raised by the PDP.

The Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, Abayomi Shogunle, in an interview, denied that police had invited Ekweremadu for questioning, though admitted that a petition was written to the IGP by a member of the Senate.

He clarifed that no senator was summoned by the police over the allegation of falsifying the Senate Rules, rather, Shogunle disclosed that a letter was addressed to the Clerk of the Senate to arrange a meeting between the force and some affected senators to address the allegation.

On its party, APC said it has nothing to do with the reported police's invitation of Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said it neither wrote a petition to the police nor is it aware that any petition was written against the Deputy Senate President.

The statement said, ''However, if, as the PDP claims, the petition concerns alleged altering of the Senate's Standing Rules on the process of electing Presiding Officers, that is a clear case of forgery which the police have a duty to investigate. Questioning the right of the police to carry out their duties in this regard amounts to intimidating the security agency.

''Forgery is a crime that is being regularly investigated by the police, and it beggars belief that such investigation will now be interpreted to mean that Nigeria is descending into dictatorship or that democracy and the enjoyment of personal freedoms are now endangered. These claims by the scaremongering PDP are farfetched and preposterous.''

APC said if indeed there is a petition against Ekweremadu, he should gladly heed the invitation by the police so he can clear his name, adding that no one is above the law.

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