Alleged Forgery: Leave Ekweremadu alone, APGA tells FG

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has asked the Federal Gov­ernment to stop further persecu­tion of the Deputy Senate Pres­ident, Chief Ike Ekweremadu.

It described as an affront on the Igbo nation, the prosecu­tion of Ekweremadu, asserting that it is a plot to vilify him and the people he represents.

In an interview with jour­nalists in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital on Tuesday, APGA Deputy National Secretary, Chief Jerry Obasi, explained that Igbo would see it as coup if Ekw­eremadu is removed in the man­ner being orchestrated.

He said the offence the Dep­uty Senate President committed was because he holds the prime office in the legislature under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in an All Progressives Congress (APC)-controlled government.

Obasi said: “President Mu­hammadu Buhari and his cro­nies should leave Ekweremadu alone to carry on with his leg­islative duties. What is wrong that PDP and APC in the Sen­ate are running neck-to-neck in the Senate and the only way to stabilise the Upper House is take and give so as to strike a balance.

“I don’t think that Ekwere­madu has committed any crime to deserve all these embarrass­ments from the Buhari admin­istration. He is being persecut­ed because he is from the PDP as Deputy Senate President and PDP is Nigeria and APC is Ni­geria.

“It is unfortunate that the government is involved in a lot of highhandedness; it is bring­ing shame to our democracy and we are setting a wrong prec­edence because the whole world is watching.

“The government should leave Ekweremadu alone be­cause the whole thing is becom­ing ethnic, it is becoming tribal. The offence the Senate President Bukola Saraki committed is that he chose Ekweremadu to be his deputy.

“Ekweremadu is from Igbo and coming from somewhere. If you are rejecting him, what sig­nal are you sending to the Igbo? Igbo will not be happy with Bu­hari if Ekweremadu is removed. He should just know this. He should not think that Igbo will clap hands for him if he eventu­ally removes Ekweremadu. His body language is showing total rejection for the Igbo and it is very bad. Little have we seen any President in Nigeria succeed­ing without an Igbo. So Buhari should stop all these anti-Igbo tendencies. This is undemocrat­ic, this is the height of political annihilation,” APGA said.