₦airaland Forum

PRESIDENTIAL aspirant and publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, has tendered his reason for aspiring for the top office in the land.

Mr Sowore, who had earlier advised President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek re-election or face being disgraced, said his aspiration was to move the country forward having been drawn backward by the administrations of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressive Congress (APC).

The publisher stated this on Wednesday while featuring on a programme on Channels Television, Politics Today, monitored by HEADLINE.

The aspirant said his political party was third force needed to oust the PDP and APC, describing the former as a desperate and dying political party whereas the latter according to him is made up of propaganda and lies.


“The reason why PDP is desperate is because PDP is dead and it’s about to bury itself. They bury themselves by way of performance, disastrous 16 years rule in Nigeria,” Sowore said.

He frowned at people who said the president should continue in office because there is no alternative than him.

“I don’t like when people say on national tv especially within the mainstream that there is no alternative to Buhari in Nigeria when you have people like us who have capacity, character, integrity, stamina, intellect, history, pedigree and energy. We can run marathon while he (Buhari) is walking 800 kilometers from the mosque and you are saying these young people in Nigeria who are preserving themselves with programmes and ideas that are fresh and innovative are not alternative.

“I don’t know what is wrong with us, we are the ones that are making the points that we are not willing to get out of the bondage that we are in,” he said.

Sowore challenged Buhari and other presidential aspirants to a debate.

“The young people are here to take their country to the next level of prosperity and we want to say goodbye to poverty incompetence and the lacklustre kind of leadership that we have had in Nigeria in the last 16 years of PDP plus 3 years of APC.

“The alternative is here that is why we should be debating. We should be talking about the fresh ideas that we are bringing on the table to grow electricity, infrastructure, power, to stop corruption completely not the type of anti-corruption war that APC is fighting where we replace the old thieves with new thieves.

“Please let’s have that conversations. And if you want to be more serious may be you should start bring these presidential candidates to debate us. Buhari should be brought out, the media should force them out of hiding, let them come and debate the future of Nigeria.

“We are here to take the country to the next level, that’s why I’m aspiring to be President,” he added.

Mr Iyke Odikpo, a member of the APC in the programme countered the publisher saying Nigeria’s presidency is beyond youthfulness.

“Presidency of Nigeria needs more than youthfulness. You need to be more than youthfulness to be President of Nigeria,” Mr Odikpo said.

“Nigeria is a complex society, system which needs a lot of experience, contacts, reach to win the presidential election of Nigeria.

“Buhari, three times the man tried, for the three times he had a bloc votes from a particular part of the country. And when those who decided to say let’s support this man to make a change in Nigeria.

“You need a lot of experience, contacts to win election then you need a lot to manage Nigeria,” he added.

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari, has not returned to the country at the expiration of his his 10 days working visit to London.

A statement by the presidency on August 1st said Mr Buhari was leaving the country on August 3rd for a 10 days working holiday and will be back in the country after the expiration of the stipulated time.

As at Thursday, August 16th, 2018 when this report was filed the president was yet to return to the country.

Known telephone lines of Garba Shehu, who is the president’s aide, rang out unanswered when series of calls was placed to it. An email sent to him was not replied as at the time of publishing this report Friday morning.

Although he transferred power to Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, the president’s absence is still being felt in the country. The siege at the National Assembly last week is a case study even though Mr Osinbajo acted in his absence the vice-president’s action was based on his principal’s directive.

A similar scenario played out in 2017 when Mr Buhari left the country on a medical treatment for an undisclosed ailment and return after spending more than 100 days abroad.

His absence at the time gave rise to hate speech, the quit notice issued to Igbos living in the North and the growing agitations for secession that overheated the polity.

A presidential hopeful and publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to run for a second term in office.

Mr Sowore stated this on Thursday in Abuja when he led his ‘Take It Back’ movement to protest for the release of Samuel Ogundipe, a journalist who was trickistly track down and detain by the Nigeria Police. The protest held at the entrance of the force headquarters.

Mr Ogundipe, who is a staffer of an online news medium, Premium Times, was taken into custody over a story he authored for the online portal on Tuesday.

The report published by various news portals, including HEADLINE borders on the findings of the police over the siege laid at the National Assembly last week.

The police are asking the Premium Times’ author to reveal his source of the information. He has since declined saying it was against the law of ethical journalism. On Wednesday the police arraigned the journalist without a legal representation on his part.

For Sowore, if Buhari decides not to listen to the advise given to him, the president will leave Nigerians with no option than to disgrace him at the poll.

He said he was involved in the protest to demand for the release of the detained journalist and to convey a message to the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, that a new president would emerge in the 2019 general election who would not tolerate police excesses.

“That journalists cannot legitimately do their job in this country in 2018 is a disgrace,” the publisher said.

“We understand why, it was because this country made a mistake in 2015 to vote for somebody who does not believe in press freedom and even after his sick in London, he still doesn’t believe in press freedom.

“We have said it that if Buhari doesn’t leave Nigeria alone Nigerians will leave Buhari in 2019.

“But I am also here to send a memo to the police, that a new commander-in-chief is coming into town next year who would not longer tolerate police excesses.

“We are not going to tolerate the abuse of Human rights under our government and we are not going to tolerate an uncoordinated and incompetent police force without capacity to deal with simple matters such as understanding that a journalist has a right to publish a story and refuse to disclose his source wether he is detained, tortured or even at the point of dead.

“They people that they should be arresting are politicians but they are the ones that they are protecting.

“As we speak now an average Nigerian governor who is a major thief is protected by over 200 police men, yes that is the official number that we know. Some of them have Soldiers, Naval officers, they have civil defence they even have private militia,” he said.

Addressing the protesters, Police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, seems not to under what a source of story meant.

“We are not saying tell us the source of your story, we are saying tell us where the document emanates from,” the image maker of the force said.

He accused the detained journalist of “theft of classified documents” used in writing the story.

Mr Moshood said Mr Ogundipe was arrested and arraigned in line with constitutional provision, insisting the police were committed to respect for the rule of law.

A number of groups, including Action Aid, Enough is Enough, Socialist Party of Nigeria, and Education Rights Campaign participated in the protest demanding the release of the journalist.

UNDEEN:
But your body language speaks volumes of it

BUKOLA Saraki, president of the 8th Senate, says he has not declared to run for the post of president in the forth coming 2019 general election.

Mr Saraki was reported to be considering joining the race. Some medium who republished the story said he has declared his intention to run.

“I am consulting and actively considering it, I believe I can make the change,” the top lawmaker was quoted by Bloomberg to have said.

But clarifying his position on the matter, the Senate President said the aspiration was still at the considering stage.

“‘Considering’ is not a declaration. At the appropriate time, the President of Senate will be specific about his aspiration for 2019,” his media aide, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said on Thursday.

“Moreover, the Bloomberg interview was 90% on the economy, and not politics.

“The President of the Senate has been clear that at the right time, Nigerian’s will know what his plans are,” he said.

Olaniyonu restated his principal’s comment last month where he said: “Time will come for everything; a time will come for me to tell people where I am, what I’m doing.”

SENATORS of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are keeping vigil at the National Assembly in a bid to forestall the impeachment of Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

Since his defection to the PDP, there have been several calls for Mr Saraki to relinquish his position.

The top lawmaker has refused to heed the calls insisting that only members of the Senate could decide his fate.


Attempt by Senators of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) to effect a change of leadership at the Senate has often met brick wall. They range from: Stolen mace; House Arrest of principal officers of the chamber and most recently the siege laid at the legislative arm of government, last week.

Confirming the vigil been kept by PDP Senators at the parliament, Senator Philip Gyunka (Nasarawa North) on Wednesday said the opposition lawmakers decided to split themselves into two groups.

Mr Gyunka who stated this at the PDP secretariat in Lafia while declaring his intention to contest the 2019 governorship election noted that while one group watches the legislative arm of government during the day, other take their turn during the night.

In his reaction, Senator Clifford Ordia (Edo Central) said the APC will never get the 2/3 majority needed to impeach Saraki and Ekweremadu.

“APC knows that it doesn’t have the number to remove Saraki and Ekweremandu as president of the senate and deputy president of the senate respectively. They need 2/3 to remove them and they will never have it in this Eight Senate. Let them continue to chase shadows until they get tired,” Ordia told Daily Sun.



“Those saying that 2/3 of those present and voting can remove Saraki and Ekweremadu are ignorant of the law. They know that they are wrong and that they are on the wrong side of history. I don’t know why they are losing sleep over this issue. Instead of them to focus on more important things, they are chasing shadows.

“We will not allow them to remove Saraki and Ekweremadu. We will defend their mandate.

“APC didn’t give them the mandate. We did. If it means keeping night vigil at the National Assembly to ensure that their plans don’t succeed, we will do it.

“When it comes to the issue of lawmaking, there are global best practices. The parliament all over the world has a way of conducting it’s affairs. I don’t know why the APC wants to teach us how to run our business. This is a threat to democracy and we must not allow this to happen. Nigerians must rise up and defend this democracy,” the Edo lawmaker said.

Reacting to the development PDP spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said, “It is all to ensure that the APC is not allowed to destroy the democracy that we laboured for while they were busy enjoying with Abacha.”

ONLINE Media Practitioners Association of Nigeria (OMPAN), has condemned the arrest and detention of Samuel Ogundipe, a journalist and staffer of Premium Times.

In a statement signed by its Public Relation Officer (PRO), Ismaila Kana, OMPAN expressed shock over the detention of the journalist who was carrying out his constitutional duty of informing Nigerians.

The police had initially invited a journalist, Ms Azeezat Adedigba, to appear before it over a ‘criminal investigation’ it was carrying out.

On turning herself in as requested, Adedigba was accompanied by the paper’s editor-in-chief, Musikilu Mojeed. An armed operative who attended to the duo aggressively confiscated Adedigba’s phone.

While inviting Adedigba, the police said her name and telephone number cropped up in a criminal investigation they were carrying out.

The police in a trickery manner later used the duo to tracked down Samuel Ogundipe, another journalist who is a staffer to the online news medium.

“OMPAN joins other well meaning local and international organization to call for his immediate and unconditional release as well as unfreezing of his account,” the association said on Wednesday.

“OMPAN wonders why only Samuel Ogundipe was singled out for this unlawful, evil and undemocratic arrest when so many online and print media houses carried the story in question.

“It is very strange that in a country that claims to be practicing democracy, a member of the fourth realm can be arrested and detained by the police without provocation.

“OMPAN wants to stress that Mr Samuel Ogundipe was well within his rights to report the said letter and should not be held responsible for the inability of the Nigerian Police to manage its confidentiality or put a tight lid on all the sensitive documents it wants to keep away from the public.

“The fact that Mr Samuel Ogundipe was exercising his constitutionally protected right as a journalist can never be overemphasized and not even the Nigerian police has the power to take that away from him.

“OMPAN notes with chagrin that Nigeria is fast becoming a Banana republic because of the high handedness of the police and other security agencies and this is not acceptable in a democratic dispensation.

“OMPAN wants to state very clearly that Nigerians can no longer tolerate this Military Junta style that the police is adopting to silence reporters and starting with the immediate and unconditional release of Samuel Ogundipe, the police must desist from further embarrassing Nigeria in the eye of the international community.

“The Nigerian police has already inflicted a great deal of pain on innocent and law abiding Nigerians already and this must stop!

“OMPAN recalls how SARS officers arrested, molested and compelled its members in Owerri to pay a huge bribe before matching them to an ATM to withdraw the bribe money or risk being implicated to a crime. But for the resourcefulness of the Journalists in procuring incontrovertible pictorial evidence of that event, they probably would have been held in similar fashion as Samuel Ogundipe.

“This is unacceptable. The police must as a matter urgency retrace its footsteps and toe the path of civility and service to humanity as is commensurate with their profession the world over,” the statement read.

lalasticlala

THE response of sacked Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Lawal Daura, to Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, might be responsible for his removal.

Masked DSS operatives early Tuesday morning prevented lawmakers from accessing the National Assembly for several hours.

The widespread media attention and outrage from Nigerians, as well as attempts by furious lawmakers to break into the premises, forced the security agents to grant access to the parliament.

Limitedly, the access was only granted to serving lawmakers. All other members of staff at the National Assembly, as well as journalists and other independent observers were denied entry.

The siege lasted until late afternoon when DSS operatives stood down after receiving reports that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo did not authorise the deployment and had fired the director-general of the secret police, Lawal Daura, as a consequence.



Presidential sources has disclosed events that led to Daura’s removal. Quoted by Premium Times, the sources disclosed that Osinbajo communicated his action to his principal, President Muhammadu Buhari before going public with the announcement but this was after the SSS boss was placed as a suspected mole in the security agency.

Although his activities suggests Daura was taking directives from Buhari, who appointed him, he is lately been suspected to be working for Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

“When the siege began, the acting president quickly went to action and was able to gather preliminary information of what was going on after which he invited some of the security chiefs concerned for a briefing,” one of the sources said.

Those invited include the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, who said the siege came as a surprise to him and the former DSS DG, Mr Daura, who is reportedly arrested even though his whereabout at the moment remained unknown.

“When Lawal Daura came in, the acting president asked him who cleared him to order operatives to lay siege on the National Assembly; and his response was ‘shocking’.

“He simply said it’s within his powers and that he is only answerable to the President and Commander-in-Chief who appointed him,” the source said.



After his response, Mr Osinbajo told his media aide, Laolu Akande, to immediately issue a statement announcing the sack of Mr Daura.

“The acting president also asked the National Security Adviser to hand over the sacked DG to the police for further investigation,” the source added.

Some Nigerians have said the presidency was using Daura as a scapegoat because the government plan to oust Saraki has failed.

Some are of the opinion that there was no way the sacked DSS DG who is the cousin of the president could turn around and betray his principal working for Saraki. This position was also corroborated by the PDP who asked Osinbajo to “shed the idea of using” the sacked Director General of the Department of Services, Lawal Daura as “the fall guy” for Tuesday’s invasion of the National Assembly by security forces.

The opposition party maintained that the siege was with the “absolute knowledge and approval of President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Osinbajo, and the All Progressives Congress (APC).”

Also, the APC has accused Mr Saraki of masterminding the drama that transpired at the parliament yesterday.

BUKOLA Saraki, Senate President, has been accused of master-minding Tuesday’s siege laid at the National Assembly.

The accusation is coming from the All Progressive Congress (APC). Mr Saraki had recently dumped the APC for the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP).

State Security Service (SSS) operatives prevented lawmakers from accessing the parliament for several hours on Tuesday morning.

Following widespread media attention and outrage from Nigerians, as well as attempts by furious lawmakers to break into the premises, the security agents ultimately allowed access to the National Assembly. But the access was only granted to serving lawmakers. All other members of staff at the National Assembly, as well as journalists and other independent observers were denied entry.

The siege lasted until late afternoon when SSS operatives stood down after receiving reports that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo did not authorise the deployment and had fired the director-general of the secret police, Lawal Daura, as a consequence.



Since his defection, there have been several calls to Saraki urging him to relinquish his seat at the Nigerian Senate or face impeachment.

The ruling party who had earlier condemned the seige laid at the parliament have now backtracked, accusing Saraki of plotting the drama at the legislative arm of government yesterday.

In a statement titled: “How Security Operatives Stopped Saraki’s Plan to Foment Violence over Impeachment,” the APC said the Senate President it has “uncovered the sinister plot hatched by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki to foment violence in the legislative chamber all in a bid to stop his impeachment.”

The party’s new position dispatched Wednesday morning was signed by the acting spokesman of the party, Yekini Nabena.

Mr Nabena said the party’s intelligence report uncovered and noted the following:

“We are now aware that the timely intervention of the security operatives forestalled the planned violence which could have led to possible deaths, injuries and destruction of property in the National Assembly on Tuesday.



“Why did the Senate President mobilise thugs to the National Assembly who almost lynched Hon. E.J. Agbonayinma, the only APC federal lawmaker present but for the timely intervention of security operatives.

“Why did the Senate President reconvene the National Assembly? Ostensibly as a pre-emptive move to frustrate federal lawmakers move to impeach him.

“Is it not curious that only Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) federal lawmakers were present in their numbers-some as early as 7am, while the majority APC federal lawmakers were elsewhere holding a caucus meeting on the state of the nation.

“We call on security agencies and relevant bodies to as a matter of urgency probe these findings and take all necessary and legitimate action to stop these illegalities which pose a direct and ominous threat to our democracy.

“As espoused in our earlier statement, whilst our contention with the leadership of the National Assembly as currently constituted is a matter of public record, we still believe that the legislature as an independent arm of government must be allowed free reign for vibrant contestation of ideas and values amongst its members within the context of their constitutional mandate and for the benefit of the Nigerian people.

“Finally, we reiterate our call for the Senate President to resign from the position immediately as he no longer has the moral and legitimate ground to occupy that position as a member of the minority PDP. Going by the popular axiom, the majority will have their way, but the minority will have their say.”

ACTING President, Yemi Osinbajo has ordered the termination of the Director General of the Department of Security Service, (DSS), Duara Lawal.

This was made known in a tweet by his Special Assistant on Media, Laolu Akande.

“AgP Yemi Osinbajo has directed the termination of the appointment of the DG of the DSS, Mr. Lawal Musa Daura.

“Mr. Daura has been directed to hand over to the most senior officer of the State Security Service until further notice,” Akande tweeted.






Mr Osinbajo ‘s action may not be unconnected to the recent invasion of the National Assembly by operatives of the SSS earlier today.

SENATOR Godswil Obot Akpabio, has resigned as Senate Minority Leader of the upper legislate chamber.

Mr Akpabio, who represents Akwa Ibom North West District in the Senate, is a former governor of Akwa Ibom State.

The former governor, a first timer at the Senate, was reportedly planning to dump his party, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).

Mr Akpabio’s defection is surprising, coming at a time several APC leaders, including the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, have defected to the PDP.

In a letter dated August 4, 2018, the lawmaker said his resignation was with immediate effect.

According to Sun Newspaper, he thanked the PDP alongside and his colleagues for the opportunity given to him while he served in that capacity.

I have often heard some people advising ladies to have backup boyfriends. This means that aside her primary or main boyfriend, a lady should have another boyfriend she may not necessarily be close to or intimate with as she could just be platonic friends with the so called backup boyfriend without strings attached. They argue that in case her current boyfriend disappoints her or fails to marry her, she will switch over to the backup boyfriend.

Now let me tell you categorically that with my several years of experience as a counsellor, that this kind of advice from whoever gives you such depraved advice is completely wrong and if you adhere to such advice as a lady, you will only end up hurting yourself at the end of the day.

Now today I will be sharing with you ten solid and proven reasons why as a lady you must never even contemplate having any backup boyfriend. Those who have done this have always regretted their actions. The reasons are as follows:

1. It Makes You Cheap As A Woman: Have you ever imagined how it feels as a lady to know that you have just one boyfriend and the peace of mind you will have to focus on your school, job or career knowing fully well that you are faithful to your guy? Have you ever imagined how cheap you will look to your boyfriend if he eventually finds out that you are double dating? Imagine the lies you would have to tell to cover up your unfaithfulness. Imagine the trust he had in you which you will shatter by doing so! You will simply look cheap as a lady and this will seriously affect your self worth as a woman.

2. It Can Break Up Your Current Relationship: One thing some ladies fail to realize is that once trust is broken, it will be very difficult to get it back. Once your loving boyfriend who really trusted you before discovers you’ve been insincere with him all along, this can break your current relationship and even your backup boyfriend too may find out and also end the relationship and decide to have nothing to do with you. They will believe that once a cheat, always a cheat.



3. It Leads To Having Multiple Sexual Partners: You may not know this but the more men you make friends with as a lady, the likelihood of developing and having feelings for them and eventually having sex with them even when you never intended this to happen. This is because sometimes the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and as a result of this, you may be unable to control certain things at certain points in time and you may become overwhelmed and give in to certain demands by men especially as they can use their manly prowess to manipulate you to give in to their demands. This can eventually ruin your life.

4. You May Contract STDs: One of the dangerous effects of having spare or backup boyfriends as a lady is that since the likelihood of having sex with them is high, so also the likelihood of contracting deadly sexually transmitted diseases which can eventually destroy your life beyond repair and render all your years of struggle useless and likewise even destroy your future. Some STDs actually don’t even have known cure while others are so deadly that they’re difficult to detect and those who have them could carry them for many years and would continue to spread these diseases to others through sex.

5. It Will Exhaust Your Energy, Time & Resources: Having a backup or spare boyfriend does not come as easy as you think. It will surely make you lose concentration in your school, career or job because you will be trying to please each of them because you are hoping that one of them will propose marriage to you which may never even happen in the first place. You will keep wasting your energy, your time and your resources including money for calls, text messages, data subscriptions for browsing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Whatsapp just to keep in touch with the both of your boyfriends at the same time. Sometimes you will be confused on how to handle this type of relationship and it will even make you less productive because you’re facing too many commitments at the same time. Please desist from this type of relationship that can kill you.

6. It Can Lead To Everlasting Heartbreaks: One thing many ladies fail to realize in relationships is that you can’t eat your cake and have it back, no way! If you think you will keep flirting about with men and expect not to have the consequences of your actions, you are simply deceiving yourself. By keeping multiple men as your boyfriends, you are simply creating a channel for everlasting heartbreak for yourself which can happen anytime. Have you ever wondered why some beautiful ladies you thought already had boyfriends but when you get close to them you will discover they don’t have any? Some of them had multiple boyfriends before and these guys having discovered, they jilted them and the ladies now don’t have any men coming for them because of their past deeds. Be careful how you live your life as a lady, it can affect your future.

7. You Can Never Truly Love Anyone By Having Multiple Boyfriends: It will definitely be impossible for you to truly fall in love or love a guy when you have many guys you’re dating. There will surely be conflict of interest and you will be confused on who to actually give your love to. You can never love both guys the same way and by trying to share your love between the both of them, you will end up not loving anyone of them enough and this will surely crash your relationship and you will lose out of both relationships in the long run. Be careful as a lady, not all that glitters is gold.



8. It Can Affect You Psychologically: You may not know the effect of some actions you take as a lady, but when the consequences of your actions start manifesting, you will begin to regret your actions and by then it might be difficult to reverse such actions because it would have been too late. The fact is that the state of your relationship can seriously affect your feelings, emotions, your thinking and as well as your total state of mind. Women are very emotional and as a woman, you must not allow any negative thing affect your mind or else if this happens, it can lead to psychological trauma.

9. It Can Lead To Depression: People that had depression didn’t just start it suddenly, no, it’s an accumulated bout of pains, sorrow, suffering and trauma that led them to the state of depression they found themselves. These issues are linked together because when you continue to have multiple boyfriends as a lady, heartbreak will eventually happen and when this happens, depression is inevitable in that circumstance especially when you continue to have frequent heartbreaks.

10. It Can Ruin Your Destiny: Many ladies who sell their bodies by having several boyfriends all in the name of having fun don’t know the harm they’re doing to their destinies. Many ladies in Nigeria today have been used for money rituals by men just because these ladies keep flirting with different men and hopping from one bed to another. Many of these ladies too have been destroyed spiritually by men who slept with them and that’s why many women would get married but would never bear children. Some women would give birth but would actually give birth to imbeciles and deformed children because of the kind of things they’ve done in the past and the kind of people they’ve knowingly or unknowingly mingled with in the past who have now destroyed their destinies. Ladies be warned, wait for your time. Stop rushing and stop having side boyfriends or backup boyfriends because it is dangerous to do so. Be warned. A word is enough for the wise. This is wishing all you ladies the best in your relationships and wishing that you get the right man that will love you with all his heart and make you happy! God bless you.

THE federal government has said it won’t terminate the prosecution of those standing trial because they defected to the All Progressive Congress, (APC).

Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, stated this on Monday when he paid an official visit to the Abuja office of The Authority Newspaper.

The minister noted that those defecting from their various political parties to the ruling APC would not be immune from being prosecuted if they looted from the nation’s treasury.

He was actually reacting to insinuations in some quarters that the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswil Akpabio, was cross-carpeting from his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC in order to escape being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Mr Akpabio, who represents Akwa Ibom North West District in the Senate, is a former governor of Akwa Ibom.



Mr Akpabio’s defection is surprising, coming at a time several APC leaders, including the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, have defected to the PDP.

“Nobody will escape investigation and prosecution on the ground that he or she has moved to APC,” Mohammed said.



“We have shown that with a former governor and a member of our party that was convicted. We will never terminate anybody’s prosecution on the ground of decamping.

“However, it is not for the executive to do the work of the judiciary,” he added.

The minister, however, said that many of the defections being witnessed were not premised on the allegation of escaping justice.

He said some defected for “political calculation and personal reasons.”

PassingShot:
It means my post didn't educate you enough. If being in APC washes away your past sins, Saraki and his gang wouldn't have left. Common sense is a rarity nowadays.