Leave Ekweremadu Alone PDP Tells FG Fight Corruption

In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan on Thursday, the party said that while the PDP was in full support of any genuine anti-graft war, the All Progressives Congress (APC)- led administration’s obsession with Ekweremadu was another clear indication that it was not ready to fight corruption, but rather out to scandalize, persecute, and bring down its perceived opponents.


The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday, March 22, sent a message to the federal government asking it to fight corruption and stop hounding members of the opposition parties including the deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu.

ALSO READ: PDP Tasks Buhari To Recover Stolen N28bn IDPs’ funds - Or

The party specifically expressed dismay at the motion exparte filed by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property seeking the forfeiture of assets allegedly not declared by the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

In a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologondiyan, the PDP said it was not happy with the motion exparte filed by the special presidential investigation panel for the recovery of public property seeking the forfeiture of assets allegedly not declared by the Ekweremadu.

It said: “The PDP recalls that this government rushed to arraign Senator Ekweremadu and the Senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki in 2016 on trumped up charges of forgery of Senate Standing Rule, even when there was not even a mention of their names in the contentious police report or Proof of Evidence. It eventually withdrew the charges for lack of merit.

“In the current matter, apart from relying on an obsolete law to dabble into the roles of the Code of Conduct Bureau, we are not surprised that the Panel could not carry out a thorough and independent investigation on the purported property of the Senator, but relied on a petition by the former Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice Innocent Umezulike, who is standing corruption trial in several courts, after his removal from office by the National Judicial Council (NJC) in 2017.

“The police raided and ransacked Senator Ekweremadu’s official guest house in Abuja in May 2017 and blamed it on false whistle blowers, whom they charged to court. Nothing has been heard about the trial of the alleged false whistle blowers again.

“The APC Federal Government has failed to prosecute those involved in the Ikoyigate scandal, and the recall of fugitive Abdulrasheed Maina, among others.“Ekweremadu is a major symbol of the opposition. We believe that this is part of the grand plan to strangulate the PDP ahead of the 2019 elections and we will resist” it added.