Continued persecution of senate president will dim APC’s chance in 2019 ―Kwara APC

THE All Progressives Congress(APC) in Kwara State has said that the appeal filed by the executive arm of Federal Government against the ruling of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) that discharged and acquitted the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, is another attempt to subject the Senate President to media trial.

In a statement signed by the publicity secretary of the party, Alhaji Sulyman Buhari, and made available to journalists in Ilorin on Sunday, the party said that alleged continued persecution of the Senate President by suspected agents of government and collaborators may dim the chance of the APC in the 2019 presidential election.

The party also expressed the hope that the ruling of the CCT would be sustained by higher courts, saying that the ruling represented true position of Law.

“We are concerned that the continued persecution of the Senate President by desperate agents of the government and their external collaborators will dim the chance of the All Progressives Congress in the 2019 presidential election. The FG should wade in to curtail the excesses of these saboteurs before they would have done irreparable damage to the government and the party.

“The APC in Kwara State wishes to restate its firm belief in the independence of the Judiciary. We are confident the Judiciary will indeed demonstrate its independence by upholding the ruling of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) that discharged and acquitted the Senate President.

“Meanwhile, if the fight against corruption is not selective, vindictive and a tool to settle political scores, why is it taking the government prolonged delay to order investigation and arraign the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Anti-Corruption (PACAC), Prof Itse Sagay, who corruptly instructed the Chairman of CCT on how to conduct the trial? Therefore, we demand his immediate prosecution for attempting to arrest and manipulate the course of justice.

“In the last two years, facts have shown that some desperate agents of the Federal Government who made no significant contribution to the victory of the APC in the 2015 presidential election and their external collaborators had in no small measure distracted the Executive from delivering electoral promises to Nigerians due to the unpatriotic drive to persecute the head of the second arm of government and a strong pillar of the APC.

“In the next two years, Nigerians believe the Executive would have learnt some lessons and fully concentrate on issues of governance. However, with the continued persecution of the Senate President, it is clear that agents of the Executive have made the Senate President the only agenda of the Executive.

“One of such desperate agents is one Okoi Obono- Oblo, who appears to be pursuing personal vendetta because the Nigerian Senate found him unworthy to serve as a non-Executive Commissioner on the governing board of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.