The Enugu state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said it will hold the federal government responsible if anything happens to Ike Ekweremadu, the deputy Senate president.
This was disclosed at a PDP stakeholders meeting held during the weekend at Awgu, Enugu-West senatorial district.
The meeting was held to show support for Ekweremadu over what they tagged, “political persecution by the APC-led Federal Government”.
A communiqué issued at the end of meeting condemned the trial of the Senate leadership.
The communiqué read: “Ekweremadu is a senator of the Federal Republic elected with an overwhelming mandate of his people and has remained one of Nigeria’s brightest lawmakers, who enjoys the confidence of his colleagues on account of which he was re-elected the deputy senate president for an unprecedented third time.
“His re-election into that position did not violate any known convention, practice and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The desperation of the cabal in the APC-led Federal Government to get rid of him by all means is hugely counter-productive and hold ramifying consequences for Nigeria’s political stability and unity.
“We would hold the Federal Government squarely responsible should anything untoward happen to Ekweremadu. We therefore condemn the kangaroo trial of the Senate presiding officers and National Assembly bureaucracy in continued contempt for the rule law, revered democratic principles of separation of power, court orders, which constitute a dangerous muscling of the judiciary and ‘abuse of legal process’ (in the words of Justice Kolawole) by the APC-led Federal Government.”
Ekweremadu and Senate President Bukola Saraki are being tried for alleged forgery of the rules of the eighth Senate.