Angst
by the open double standard of the anti-graft body, a pro-democracy and civil
society group – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has
challenged Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to show that it is
not the armed wing of All Progressive Congress by taking steps to redeem its
battered image. The group wants the global community not to standby and watch
as the President uses the EFCC; The Police and other armed security forces to
undermine constitutional democracy and seek to manipulate the outcome of the
forthcoming polls in favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress even as the
Rights group expressed fears that these illegal steps by the federal government
could precipitate social chaos and upheavals that may have untoward
consequences to our constitutional democracy.
HURIWA tasked the Ibrahim Magu – led EFCC to desist from
confiscating the legitimate finances of the presidential running mate of the
opposition party – Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mr. Peter Obi and to arrest
and interrogate a member of the All Progressives Congress in the Federal House
of Representatives Alhaji Umar Bago for flouting extant laws on campaign
finances by his unilateral donation of 110 vehicles to that incumbent
president.
In a media statement, the National Coordinator of HURIWA
Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Directors Miss Zainab
Yusuf lamented that the Ibrahim Magu-led EFCC has since embarked on a voyage of
destroying constructive political opposition to the incumbent president through
all sorts of subterfuge and politically tainted prosecutorial blackmail,
intimidation and deployment of unfair and unconstitutional tactics such as the
illegal muzzling of the financial muscles of the only opposition party, strong
enough to pose a tough competition in the 2019 poll to president Buhari.
“The freezing of the bank account of Mr. Peter Obi who
had left the political scene as governor for many years now without any atom of
suspicions and has only just returned as the running mate to Atiku
Abubakar the PDP’s presidential flagbearer, is at best, a blackmail of the most
primitive dimension just as HURIWA demanded to know why EFCC has resorted to
the use of unfair mechanisms to destroy opposition politics in Nigeria
including the invasions of homes of children of the leading opposition
candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. ”
“The attack on key figures of the PDP by EFCC which has
coincided with the reported sighting of Ibrahim Magu at an APC presidential
campaign strategy session in Nicon Luxury hotel Area eleven Garki Abuja is the
greatest affront to constitutional democracy and if not checked could lead to
the eventual scuttling of the 2019 elections.”
“We are compelled to wonder if there is a sinister plot
from the topmost holder of political office in AsoRock to scuttle the 2019
election going by the several turning down of the amendments to the electoral
Act by the president alongside the freezing of the legitimate earnings of the
family of the running mate to the PDP’s presidential candidate and even the
open threats to Peter Obi’s life and those of his family members by unknown
supporters of APC and the behaviour of EFCC as the armed militant wing of APC.”
Also, HURIWA expressed shock that a member of the
Federal House of Representative from Niger state which is one of the Northern
states whereby 13 million children are out of school due to parental poverty
and neglect of the educational sector, can single handedly donate 110 vehicles
against the electoral and campaign financing statutes to the APC presidential
candidate.
HURIWA recalled that Rep. Umar Bago
(APC/Niger), on Saturday donated 110 vehicles to the President Muhammadu Buhari
re-election campaign team, with a call on the electorate to vote for continuity
in the 2019 general elections.
HURIWA quoting the media stated that Bago, while delivering the vehicles to the Niger APC leadership in Minna, expressed optimism that Nigerians would vote for Buhari because he had done well for the country just as he urged the party’s members to work hard toward securing fresh tenures for Buhari and Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger, saying that the two leaders were the best choice for the nation and Niger.
HURIWA quoting the media stated that Bago, while delivering the vehicles to the Niger APC leadership in Minna, expressed optimism that Nigerians would vote for Buhari because he had done well for the country just as he urged the party’s members to work hard toward securing fresh tenures for Buhari and Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger, saying that the two leaders were the best choice for the nation and Niger.
HURIWA quoted the Reps member as explaining that
the vehicles will be given to campaign officials and other APC organizations to
ease movement to the rural voters to enlighten the populace on the achievements
of the two leaders.
Besides, HURIWA recalled that the politician
unilaterally donated those large numbers of vehicle going by media reports that
he Alhaji Bago said that Buhari provided massive infrastructure that had
improved the living standards of Nigerians, while many dams had been
constructed to support all-year farming.
HURIWA totally condemned the
failure of EFCC to arrest this unusual donor so he clarifies if he is being
used as a front by the AsoRock cabal to launder money allegedly or he is the
owner of the vehicles.
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