A call has gone to the authorities of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to wield the big stick by prosecuting top government officials including the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, for flouting safety measure while attending the burial of late Malam Abba Kyari.
While noting the apology by Mustapha who doubles as Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 pandemic on the violation of heath safety and social restriction directives by certain government officials during the funeral of the late Chief of Staff to the President, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) called for stiffer penalty on all culprits.
The party said that Mustapha’s apology is unacceptable because it came after widespread condemnation of the conduct of such government officials and other individuals at the funeral.
It described as unfortunate that those who make and enforce rules over ordinary Nigerians were found directly violating the same rules with impunity, thereby compromising the efforts to check the spread of the pandemic in the country.
In a statement in Abuja on Tuesday by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP, therefore charged the FCT to apply same measure of punishment in force for recalcitrant residents on identified government officials found guilty.
“Our party holds that the SGF and other government officials including PTF members ought to have shown respect to the memory of Malam Kyari by conducting themselves in a manner that should have served as a guide to other Nigerians in the fight against COVID-19.
“This, therefore, is not an act that an apology by the SGF will serve as enough, as it does not drive home the issue at stake to the public as well as to government officials.
“Consequently, the PDP charges the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) authorities, in line with its actions against ordinary Nigerians who had flouted the rules, to immediately prosecute all government functionaries involved in this violation.
“Nigerians had all watched how the FCT prosecuted residents at various mobile courts across the territory. Justice would therefore only be done and of course, seen to have been done, if the FCT toes the same line in this instance.
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“Nigeria as a nation is governed by the constitution in which all Nigerians are deemed equal before the law. Our officials must learn to respect rules made and enforced by them, particularly at this trying time.
“The PDP however urged Nigerians not to allow this development to make them lose faith in the overall multi-sectoral effort to contain the COVID-19 pandemic”, read the statement in part,” the party said.
The PDP also charged all citizens to redouble their efforts in adhering to the restriction order as well as health safety directives of social distancing and personal hygiene, adding that with the concerted effort of all, the nation will defeat the scourge.
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