Senators elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party have warned the Federal Government against using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to intimidate them, vowing to resist such attempt.
They asked President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that some people do not use his name to misuse state machinery in fighting their perceived political opponents in the guise of waging anti-corruption war.
A statement on Friday by Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, on behalf of PDP Like Mind Senators, said any attempt to unleash the anti-graft agencies on members of the National Assembly as a result of the leadership crisis rocking the legislative chamber would not only be constitutionally and lawfully resisted, but could have dire consequences on governance in the country.
The statement read, “As much as we are not against the anti-corruption agencies performing their statutory duties, the invitation by EFCC to the wife of the Senate President, Mrs. Toyin Saraki, clearly indicated that the threat by a group within the National Assembly to use all means to fight the National Assembly leadership is now being carried out.
“Nigerians should ask the EFCC what it was waiting for all this while before realising that it would need to invite Mrs. Saraki when she left the Government House with her husband in 2011. And why should the invitation come a few days after a senator threatened that his group would bring the senate president down?
“We also think that the same witch-hunt that the wife of the senate president is suffering now is the same thing happening to his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who the police have been disturbing. But at the right time, we will jointly make our opinion known on the harassment of our leaders.”
The Kwara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress on Friday said the invitation of Mrs. Toyin Saraki, wife of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was politically motivated.
But during a media briefing in Ilorin after the state APC’s executive meeting, the state APC Chairman, Alhaji Ishola Balogun-Fulani, described the EFCC’s invitation as a calculated attempt to dent the image of the senate president and his wife.
He cautioned EFCC to avoid being used for political vendetta.
Balogun-Fulani said, “The EFCC’s invitation of Mrs. Saraki was a shock to the APC in Kwara State because five years after her husband left office as the governor, the anti-graft agency thought it wise to invite his wife for questioning.”
