Presidency: Buhari Cannot Stop Senator Saraki's Trial

Muhammadu Buhari

• APC, PDP continue slanging match over Senate President, N’Assembly
• I remain with APC, says Saraki

Tobi Soniyi and Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja   

After days of silence on the issue, the Presidency has rejected what it described as  “attempts to link the ongoing trial of the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, to the presidency”, saying that it has nothing to do with Saraki's trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) and cannot stop it.

This is just as the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) continued their war of attrition over the Muhammadu Buhari administration’s prosecution of the war against corruption, with the opposition party accusing the APC of habouring an undemocratic plot to control the National Assembly, undermine its statutory role of checks and balances and set the stage for dictatorship.

The PDP, which on Saturday accused the Buhari administration and APC of plotting to use the apparatus of state to remove Senate President Saraki, said yesterday that no amount of blackmail and diversionary tactics by the APC would deter it from exposing the deliberate agenda, already in motion, by the present administration to destroy the nation’s democracy and impose a dictatorship on the country.

But in a quick riposte, APC dismissed what it described as the “rash of wild accusations against the APC-led federal government” as confirmation that the PDP had perfected plans to distract the Buhari-led government from its task of reviving the country’s fortunes.

A statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, yesterday said trying to link the presidency to Saraki’s travails before the tribunal was unacceptable, adding: “Views to the effect that the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) can only act upon external instigation are equally uninformed.”

Saraki faces a 13-count charge bordering on alleged corruption and false declaration of assets, levelled against him by the CCB.
But Shehu said there was no place in law that the bureau and the tribunal should take instructions from any quarters.
“As an independent institution equal to any superior court of record, the tribunal is set up by the constitution to determine the issue of default, false declaration or forgery in assets declaration.

“This therefore is purely a judicial process and has nothing to do with the presidency.
“If anyone has an axe to grind with what they are doing, they should do it in a judicial manner by challenging those actions in a proper court of law. Let them hire a good team of lawyers to prove their innocence.
“Government has no desire to persecute anybody. The president has vowed to respect the rule of law and this is what he is doing by staying out of this matter.

“He has said times without number that the war against corruption has no sacred cows,” Shehu stated.
Shehu said that ‎even if the president wanted to help, there was no way he could do anything.
“Is he going to ask the judge to stop the trial?” he asked?

Shehu said Saraki’s trial was purely a judicial process, the type of which is routinely dealt with by the CCB and the CCT.
“There are many cases like this that are going on. The president has sworn to an oath to protect the constitution and will not violate that oath,” the president’s media aide added.

The presidency’s statement notwithstanding, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in statement yesterday said: “If not for a possible ulterior motive of appropriating the federal legislature as a means to undermine its statutory role of checks and balances and set the stage for dictatorship, what other reasons could there be for the current fixation on the leadership of the Senate by the APC and the presidency?”

He said Nigerians await answers to issues and would not be hoodwinked by the antics of APC’s spokesperson, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, whose cleverness in using insults, personal attacks and wild allegations to divert attention are well known.

The statement said by resorting to insults, threats and personal attacks on its leaders, instead of responding to issues of emerging fascism raised by the PDP on Saturday, the APC and the federal government “further confirmed their intolerance, disdain for democracy and frenetic appetite for totalitarianism”.

“How else can one explain the relentless interferences in the activities of the National Assembly, a separate and independent arm of government, in addition to the bitterness with which the presidency and the APC hold the duly elected leadership of the Senate, simply because it is not occupied by their preferred candidates?

“While we understand the nervousness of Alhaji Lai Mohammed to remain relevant, especially in the face of desperation for an appointment, this administration must come to terms with the fact that democracy requires accountability, adherence to the rule of law and constitutional order, and not the crass infractions, executive arrogance, intolerance and undermining of the legislature – the symbol of the sovereignty of the people – which we now witness under the APC.

“The question is, has the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government not exhibited all the trappings of despotism, including ruling without a constitutional component of a cabinet, persistent abuse of power, corrupting of democratic institutions, quest to appropriate the National Assembly, in spite of the principle of separation of powers; invasion of state government and personal houses, injecting confusion into the judiciary and hounding of individuals perceived to be against its interests?

“What is APC’s position regarding the anti-democratic statement by the president, who, in an interview, during the recent visit to France, expressed his reluctance to appoint ministers, in addition to his disparaging allusion to cabinet ministers as ‘noise makers’? Does this not smack of totalitarianism?

“Nigerians are still waiting for APC, a party which prides itself as a progressive platform, to respond to the widely condemned invasion of the Akwa Ibom State government house by the Department of State Services (DSS), under the direct instructions from the presidency.
“Is it not part of the plot activated for the possible forceful takeover of PDP states and impose a one-party regime in Nigeria?

“What about the July reprehensible invasion and sealing of Rivers local councils by the federal controlled police, which also barred members of caretaker committees that were duly appointed by the state government to take charge of the councils?

“In the same vein, how else can one explain the undue interferences of the DSS in the activities of election tribunals in PDP-controlled states of Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Delta, Abia, Taraba and others where electoral officers are being harassed, intimidated and detained, ostensibly to influence judgments against the PDP?

“This is not to talk about the intolerance and arrogance witnessed in the venom with which the APC attack well-meaning Nigerians, including highly revered national leaders for daring to counsel the federal government on some observed undemocratic tendencies under their ‘new Sheriff’, a development which has resulted in the setting in of an environment where citizens, irrespective of political affiliations, can no longer freely express their views.

“Is the PDP therefore not justified when we described as a mockery of reasoning, President Buhari’s choice words to condemn the coup in Burkina Faso whilst his government engages in brazen contravention of our own constitution?

“Whilst we note the failed efforts of the APC spokesman to divert attention, we invite the presidency and the APC to be informed that their attempt to harass and/or intimidate us with a plethora of well instigated, sponsored, immature and wild allegations can never deter us from remaining focused on issues.

“Nevertheless, as we restate our commitment in providing an issue-based opposition as well as our support for the fight against corruption, our final word for the APC spokesman on this, is that being ethically challenged, includes embezzling funds meant for fencing of an airport in an APC-led South-west state.

“It also includes when one fraudulently refuses to supply ambulances after collecting monies from another APC South-west state.
“It is then a comedy of roles when Alhaji Lai Mohammed speaks on corruption, a topic he practises and has well learnt, being a personal aide to one of the most corrupt politicians to ever bestride the political landscape of the country," PDP said.

However, the APC, in its response by its National Publicity Secretary, Mohammed, dismissed PDP’s diatribe, stating: “The PDP is wondering why we are not responding to the wild accusations emanating from their fertile imagination. It is because we consider the accusations nothing but an irritant."

Mohammed said there was no doubt that in issuing his bombastic statements, the PDP spokesman most often mistakes the APC for his party, hence “he keeps attributing to the APC the failings of his own party, the same failings that have propelled the former ruling party into the opposition”.

“Mr. Metuh wrote that ‘this administration must come to terms with the fact that democracy requires accountability, adherence to the rule of law and constitutional order’. Very interesting, because if the PDP had known all that, it would still have remained in power at the centre.

“It is therefore clear that the PDP spokesman has been so traumatised by the defeat of his party that he sometimes imagines he is writing about the APC when indeed he is listing the failings of his fallen party, the PDP,” Mohammed added.

On a personal note, the party challenged Metuh to substantiate the claim in his statement yesterday about contracts allegedly awarded to the APC national spokesman or be ready to do so in court.

“For the avoidance of any doubt, the APC spokesman has never been involved in any airport fencing contract in Osun or any deal involving fraudulent purchase or supply of ambulances anywhere in Nigeria,” it said.

APC insisted that Metuh was mortally afraid that he could be consumed by the ongoing anti-corruption battle, because of the allegations of graft hanging on his neck, as contained in published petitions to the anti-graft agencies from within his own party, rather than mere conjecture from anyone.

“Mr. Metuh's assault on the Buhari administration's anti-corruption battle is a futile attempt at saving his own neck and that of his party. Unfortunately, it is too late in the day for them, going by the quantum of allegations against them,” the party said.

Meanwhile, Saraki yesterday refuted reports on the social media that he was preparing to defect from the APC owing to his travails in the hands of the CCT.

Saraki clarified this through his Twitter handle, @bukolasaraki following mixed reactions that trailed the removal of his party’s name from his handle.

The party’s name was on Saturday removed from the official Twitter account of the Senate president, which he uses to communicate with the public.

However, the Senate president, who was reacting to the controversy generated by the removal of APC from his Twitter handle, said: “I remain a card-carrying member of my dear party. But I’m also honoured to serve as Senate president of all senators.
source THISDAY.