PDP in panic over Secondus' arrest amid fears EFCC will apprehend Ekweremadu and Akpabio

PEOPLES Democratic Party (PDP) officials have claimed that the government is nursing secret plans to arrest deputy senate president Senator Ike Ekweremadu and the minority leader former Akwa Ibom State governor Godswill Akpabio.

 

Attacking the government's current anti-corruption drive as a covert means of silencing the opposition, the PDP alleged that the recent arrest of its deputy national chairman Prince Uche Secondus was political. Yesterday, Chief Secondus was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over his possible connection with the $2.1bn Dasukigate scam.

 

Over recent months, several leading PDP members have been arrested and charged with fraud for their alleged involvement in the scandal during which money voted to buy arms for the military was diverted into private pockets.  However, the PDP's national legal adviser Victor Kwon, described Prince Secondus’ arrest as the oppressive and unfair treatment against its key leaders by the federal government.

 

Mr Kwom said: “The party alerts the nation that the arrest and detention of its deputy national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus by the EFCC is part of the grand script by the  All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government to decimate the opposition. We have also learnt of plans to arrest and detain other leaders like the deputy senate president Senator Ike Ekweremadu, the senate minority leader Senator Godswill Akpabio and others on imaginary charges.

 

“Indeed, intelligence available to the party shows that the federal government, using its various agencies, is bent on destroying any opposition to the ruling party as all indications show that the government is more interested in humiliating the PDP than fighting corruption. Finally, we state that this war on the PDP and its leaders has indeed gone too far as it has now become a mockery of democratic practice."

 

According to the EFCC, however, Prince Secondus allegedly received 23 choice vehicles from billionaire businessman Jide Omokorare, an associate of former petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke. He was also grilled for about eight hours on the same curious gifts and his detention is said to have created panic in the PDP because several party leaders benefitted from the vehicles’ allocation.

 

Prince Secondus served as the acting national chairman of the PDP following the resignation of Adamu Mu’azu just after the elections. He is the second leading party national official to be arrested after its publicity secretary Chief Olisa Metuh.