FG deploying EFCC to persecute Saraki, says Atiku
Tunde Opalana, Abuja
Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has emphatically said that the renewed investigation of former Senate President, Bukola Saraki is not prosecution, but persecution of opponents of government.
He alleged that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is being used as an instrument of the state to persecute seeming antagonists of the Buhari administration.
The presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) even pitied Saraki for keeping silent too long in the face of obvious persecution.
Atiku in a statement on Tuesday said his stand against corruption in government, was the reason why his office as vice president personally facilitated the take-off of the EFCC after it was created by then President Olusegun Obasanjo.
However, he said “there is a huge difference between prosecution and persecution. I am all for prosecuting the corrupt, but I believe it is wrong to use the instruments of state to persecute political opponents.
“Bukola Abubakar Saraki, the immediate past Senate President, is one of the most investigated politicians in Nigeria.
He has been investigated and prosecuted all the way to the Supreme Court and has prevailed against his accusers. It was expected that that should have been the end of the matter.
“However, the revival of previously investigated cases and the fact that Saraki was politically opposed to the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari seem to give strong grounds for objective bystanders to conclude that his current travails have gone beyond prosecution and are now tending towards persecution.
“The laws of Nigeria are made for all and we fought for democracy so that the powers of the state would not be used to suborn tyranny and oppression.”
He urged Saraki to stand firm and take solace in the fact that Nigerians still hold the constitution higher than any other authority and urged all Nigerians and especially, those tasked with upholding the constitution and the laws of the land, to note that silence in the face of oppression is akin to acquiescence.
