APC harassing all institutions of democracy, says Ekweremadu

Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president, says the All Progressives Congress (APC) is manipulating and harassing all institutions of democracy.

He said this at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja on Monday.

In a statement issued by Uche Anichukwu, his media aide, Ekweremadu said the solidarity of all key organs and bodies of the PDP with Ahmed Makarfi’s national caretaker committee, despite the recent judgment of the appeal court on the party’s leadership tussle, showed that “it is not the hood that makes the monk”.

Ekweremadu, who expressed displeasure at the sealing of the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja, the planned venue of the PDP stakeholders’ meeting by the security agencies, said “such flagrant manipulation of critical institutions of democracy was not only dangerous, but bad news for the nation’s democracy”.

“We are aware that all the institutions of democracy are being manipulated and harassed in this country. The national assembly and the press are not left out,” he said.

“The INEC has been captured and now a part of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Our judiciary is being insulted and assaulted every day. Their houses are being attacked very late at night and the judges are being harassed.

“So, we are not surprised at what we are seeing today (sealing of meeting venue). But what remains is for us to remain resolute.”

He also expressed his displeasure at what he described as the rise in political persecution in the country.

“If you look around this room, you will see a lot of people who are being harassed, persecuted, and taken to court. What is their offence? They claim they allegedly received stolen property, yet nobody has been arraigned for the actual stealing. As a lawyer, I know that if you are being arraigned for receiving stolen property, you must first of all arraign the man who stole the property. That is not so in our own case. Is that democracy?” He wondered.

Ekweremadu decried the worsening economic conditions of Nigerians, saying that “all the APC’ promises had been kept in the reverse order”.

“They told us that one US dollar would be one naira when they take over. Has that happened? Today, our currency is the worst currency in the whole of Africa. Is that the type of democracy we looked forward to? I can see a situation where the price of oil is going up and the value of naira is going down. What type of economics is that?”