Offa robbery: CNPP, others seek end to attacks on Saraki

THE Congress of Nigeria’s Political Parties (CNPP) has called for an immediate end to what it described as orchestrated campaigns of calumny against the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki.

This is just as groups expressed diverse views through protests, processions, statements and press briefings against and in support of the police and the Senate President on the April 5 Offa robbery incident.

In a statement jointly signed by the Kwara State chairman of the CNPP, Alhaji Adebayo Lawal, and Secretary, Prince Olufemi Adeleke, the group said Saraki had remained the target of all forms of blackmail and character assassination since his emergence as the Senate President in 2015.

“It was Senator Dino Melaye that was first taken to the fryers, followed by the accusation against Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, before the current frame-up and witch-hunt of the Senate President,” the group said.

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The group also condemned the linking of Saraki to the cases of suspected cultists, who were recently arrested, and the Offa robbery suspects, stressing that the transfer of the two cases to Abuja “smell thick of the vendetta theory” against the Senate President.

A sociopolitical group, Mass Action For Good Governance (MAFGG) has also pleaded with both the National Assembly and the Federal Government not to play politics with the robbery attack in Offa.

Speaking with newsmen in Ilorin, the group said while the police were entitled to carry out their legitimate investigations on the robbery, they should be cautious, particularly in the aspect where the arrested suspects were allegedly linked with the Senate President.

The MAFGG, which said that it did not oppose to the police handling the case appropriately, frowned at what it described as a media trials being meted on the Senate President because of the confessions of some arrested suspects.

Mallam Wali Olajide, who spoke for the group, said they expected that Saraki should have been given the opportunity to defend the purported allegations against him in the place by the police before going to the media

“What we are saying is not about the person of Dr. Bukola Saraki alone but the office that he presently occupies as the Senate President. Any unguided ridicule of that office is not only to his person but also to the National Assembly and the nation at large.

“The global media wash given to the Senate President is not good enough for all of us because the whole world is watching and the trend is capable of rubbing off on all Nigerians even those in the Diaspora,” he stated.