Forgery Trial: Leave Ekweremadu alone, says PDP BOT

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BOT) Tuesday said that alleged attempt to frustrate Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu through forgery trial will not succeed. The party’s BOT Chairman, Ambassador Walid Jibril stated this when he led a solidarity visit Ekweremadu in Abuja.

He said that Ekweremadu should be left alone to do his duty without be distracted through court action. Ambassador Jibril noted that though they did not want to preempt the decision of any court “but we are strongly calling for justice and to do away with any framing to rope Senator Ike Ekweremadu into anything because of any political reasons.”

He insisted that “no attempts should be made by anyone or group to rope in our deputy senate president into this saga of so called fraud and therefore strongly advised that the deputy senate president should be left alone to perform his duties.”

He said, “With good qualities and high record of performance, the BOT will not shy away from its responsibilities and therefore decided to be here to visit the National Assembly to give him all the necessary support and advise very strongly that nobody should try to tarnish the good record or try to cast a sly on his personality.

“I think 48 senators with the support of some APC senators elected Ekweremadu as deputy senate president which is a good omen and fruitful development for democracy and useful ingredients for a successful senate to enable them to come out with useful legislations for Nigerians.

“Any attempt to remove the deputy senate president will not augur well for democracy. “The PDP as an opposition party will continue to exhibit qualitative opposition and I will encourage our members to always deal with issues and not to concentrate on individuals.

 “Let me then extend the hand of cooperation to the other side and they senate should see itself as one family.  “Our NEC has already passed a resolution when Mr. President Muhammadu Buhari went and returned successfully from medical treatment.

  

“The BOT here today will want to further support that view that we wish him well also.” Senator Ekweremadu in his response noted that as PDP senators they were are grateful for the solidarity and support. The BOT, he said, has shown that “you are indeed our fathers and I cannot see any father who will stand aside and watch his children being persecuted without showing concern and solidarity.” 

Ekweremadu said, “Today, I believe and I am speaking the minds of my colleagues, that so many members of the National Assembly from the other parties are prepared to return to the PDP because they have seen that they made a mistake in the last election by voting APC and they are also seeing that PDP remains the biggest, greatest and the most focused party in Nigeria.

  

“As PDP members of the National Assembly, we are committed to the ideals of the party which is namely the people and democracy. That is why we are called the People’s Democratic Party. We are committed to the welfare of the people of Nigeria as enshrined in our constitution, the constitution of the PDP and the Constitution of Nigeria.

  

“We are also committed to the ideals of democracy, especially the issue of rule of law. We cannot throw away the fact that without the rule of law, there will be no country. So, as a party, we are committed to rule of law which itself is enormous in our democracy.

  

So, as members of the party in the National Assembly, we want to reinstate our commitment to the party and also its organization and most importantly, to the Board of Trustee which has shown us this kind of honour. “You are aware that the Edo election is coming, we are committed to the Edo election just as you are.

  

“So on Thursday, the Senate is going on recess and our colleagues have decided that most of our recess period be committed to ensuring that we win the Edo election. “We will spend most of our time with our colleagues in Edo to ensure that we mobilise the people of Edo to be able to give them good governance, to prepare the ground for the fourth coming governance in Edo State that would be taken over by the People’s Democratic Party.

  

“The signs are quite clear and our people there are doing extremely well, the signs are obvious that we are going to win the election. So all of us need to show commitment so that we will be able to get back Edo State and also retain Ondo State which election is on the pipeline, before the end of the year.”