Police invite Ekweremadu over forged Senate rules

The IGP asked Ekweremadu to report to Deputy Inspector General in charge of criminal investigation.
Ekweremadu’s party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said he could be arrested today over “phantom charges.”
PDP National Publicity Secretary Olisa Metuh told reporters at a news briefing in Abuja that some All Progressives Congress (APC) senators opposed to the emergence of Senators Bukola Saraki and Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively were behind the plot to remove him.
However, the APC said it had nothing to do with it adding that the police should not be intimidated in carrying out their duties .
Metuh said APC senators met last week and “concocted a petition accusing the Deputy Senate President of altering the Senate Rules on the process of election of the Presiding Officers.”
The party said it would resist any attempt by the Presidency and the APC to clampdown on the opposition.
The party also said since the APC came to power the lives of key officers of the opposition, especially the PDP had been in danger.
“Apart from the fact that the Nigerian Constitution clearly guarantees  the two chambers of the National Assembly the powers to regulate their proceedings without external interferences, we note that the petition by this group of senators who enjoy the sympathy of some APC leaders lacks merit as Senator Ekweremadu or any other senator-elect prior to the inauguration of the Senate and the election of presiding officers, could not have been involved in the process of producing the 2015 Standing Rules of the Senate which was strictly done by the bureaucracy under the Clerk to the National Assembly.
“Furthermore, Senator Ekweremadu was not in any way involved in the process other than being nominated for the position of the Deputy Senate President and could not have been privy to the secret ballot procedure adopted by the National Assembly bureaucracy, which has been widely adjudged as transparent and credible.
“Apparently to ensure that the agenda is given an official stamp, the Inspector General of Police, acting on instructions has invited the Deputy Senate President with a view to arresting him over phantom charges as a build up to incarcerate him, create a vacuum in the Senate and pave way for the imposition of APC preferred senator to take over his position.
“We are aware that some APC senators opposed to the emergence of Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively met last week and concocted a petition accusing the Deputy Senate President of altering the Senate Rules on the process of election of the Presiding Officers, upon which the police via a letter dated July 1, 2015 and signed by the Deputy Inspector General in charge of criminal investigation at the Force Headquarters has invited him to appear tomorrow, Monday, July 6, 2015 where he will be detained and put under pressure.
“Also, apart from plans to use security apparatus against the Deputy Senate President, we have information that there are instructions to certain officials at the now National Electoral Commission to alter some electoral documents and records in order to create the impression that Senator Ekweremadu did not file proper documents for the general elections to eventually pave way for his removal.
“In line with the above plot, the APC has been having secret meetings with some judges and lawyers to procure injunctions to prevent Senator Ekweremadu from playing his role as the Deputy Senate President. We are also aware that part of the plot is a conspiracy to tarnish Senator Ekweremadu’s image and open him to public ridicule. Last Monday, some APC leaders met in Abuja to perfect a plot to blackmail the Deputy Senate President by planting outlandish publications against him in the media,” the PDP said.
The PDP which had been the ruling party from 1999 to May 2015, said the nation will not descend into a “draconian regime” where a strike force is created to hunt key opposition figures, adding that leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) should be held responsible if anything happens to any key officer of the PDP.
“We are aware that President Buhari, who had earlier restated his willingness to work with anybody elected by the legislature, has been put under intense pressure resulting in his statement on the emergence of Senator Ike Ekweremadu, which is now being misconstrued by some of his overzealous party members and security officials. We therefore urge the President to bear in mind that the onus therefore lies on him to moderate the political temperature of the country by calling his overbearing party members and security officials to order.”
It said no amount of threats, intimidation and blackmail will make the Deputy Senate President to abandon the mandate freely given to him by the Senate, or compel the PDP to abdicate its responsibility as an opposition party.

…Count us out, APC says
The APC in a statement yesterday said it had nothing to do with the police’s case against the Deputy Senate President.
National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed said the APC did not write any petition to the police nor was it aware that any petition was written against the Deputy Senate President.
He said: ‘’However, if, as the PDP claims, the petition concerns alleged altering of the Senate’s Standing Rules on the process of electing Presiding Officers, that is a clear case of forgery which the police have a duty to investigate. “Questioning the right of the police to carry out their duties in this regard amounts to intimidating the security agency.
‘’Forgery is a crime that is being regularly investigated by the police, and it beggars belief that such investigation will now be interpreted to mean that Nigeria is descending into dictatorship or that democracy and the enjoyment of personal freedoms are now endangered.
“These claims by the scaremongering PDP are farfetched and preposterous.” APC said if there was a petition against Senator Ekweremadu, he should gladly heed the invitation by the police so he could clear his name, adding that no one is above the law.
‘’President Muhammadu Buhari has repeatedly said that at every point, the law must be supreme and everyone must respect the law, if the nation’s democratic system is to survive.
“Extrapolating a police invitation of anyone, no matter his status, to mean the onset of dictatorship is itself an invitation to lawlessness and anarchy, which permeated the long but ineffective rule of the PDP,’’ the party said.