Enugu group blasts APC on Ekweremadu's letter

The Enugu Peoples Fo­rum (EPF) has faulted the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the letter by the Deputy Senate President, Sena­tor Ike Ekweremadu, where he called the attention of the inter­national community to the en­dangerment of democracy and trumped up forgery charges against him, the Senate Presi­dent, and two others.

Reacting to the APC’s claim that Nigeria was a sovereign state, hence Ekweremadu ought not involve the interna­tional community in her inter­nal affairs, EPF declared that Nigeria was not only a member of a global community, but also a beneficiary of the generosity of the international commu­nity.

In a statement jointly signed by the group’s leaders in the three senatorial districts of the state: Hon. Okey Ozoani, Hon. Frank Anioma, and Hon. Mar­tin Oloto, the group said unlike the APC, which sold lies to the world and sabotaged the war against insurgency through arms sales blockade, Ekwer­emadu had acted responsibly as a former Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament.

The Forum wondered why the Enugu APC, which had kept mute in the face of alleged incessant maiming and kill­ings by marauding herdsmen as well as the mowing of un­armed young protesters in the South East, has suddenly found its voice.

Insisting that the endanger­ment of democracy in Nige­ria holds grave consequences for Africa, the Forum added: “Democracy is endangered when the Executive arm of government refuses to obey court orders; when virtually every election, especially in the strongholds of the opposi­tion, is rendered inconclusive; when the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) abuses his office and court process for partisan and other vested inter­ests; when the AGF defies par­liamentary summons and joint resolutions of the National As­sembly; and worst of all, when we go back to the military days of trumped-up charges against people who hold dissenting views with the aim of taking over the parliament, which is the symbol of democracy.”

The EPF emphasised that whereas Ekweremadu merely called the attention and re­flection of the international community on the state of the nation, it would go farther by “requesting the international community, which has in­vested so much in enthron­ing and sustaining Nigeria’s democracy to take steps to arrest the drift of the nation’s democracy”.

The group said the people of South-East have never had it so bad since the end of the civ­il war, describing the Enugu APC leadership as “desperate job seekers and insufferable hypocrites” working against the larger Igbo interest.

The Forum, however, ad­vised them not to hope for a better treatment than other party leaders in the region considered to have given the present administration only five per cent of its winning votes.

The group listed Chief Ogbonnaya Onu, Dr. Chris Ngige, Prof. Anthony Onwu­ka, and Mr. Osita Okechukwu as APC chieftains of South East extraction who ended up with mere third class minis­tries, junior minister, and a moribund parastatal despite their efforts at enthroning the APC government.