Senate Confirmation Of Obanikoro, A Mockery Of Nigerians- APC Lagos

APC Lagos in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary,
Joe Igbokwe has asked the Senate leadership to cover its head in shame for
trampling on the integrity of due process by confirming a person that was
deeply implicated in an election rigging plot in Ekiti as a Minister despite
wide ranging protests against his nomination. Here’s part of the statement;

“It is obvious that the PDP presidency that nominated
Obanikoro and the PDP members of the Senate that forced through decency and
protests of Nigerians to approve his nomination are hell bent on corrupting
both the laws and institutions of the Nigerian State by that howling act of
rewarding criminality,” the party said.

“It was obvious that the ministerial nomination and the
controversial confirmation are means by which a corrupt and senseless party
wants to mock Nigerians, mock its laws and mock decency to reward a character
that should be docked for crimes against the state. It is just too absurd that
a party should visit these illegalities on a nation.

“The country is once again, assailed by the lawless
inclination of the PDP as a party that thrives in such criminality as election
rigging and which uses same to reward perpetrators who should be jailed for
high crime which the Ekitigate scandal amounts to. What the Senate and its PDP
members forced through in confirming Obanikoro is the audacious reign of
illegality and impunity and Nigerians have a golden chance to throw the PDP to
the dustbin of history on March 28.

“We note that the outgoing President, who was alleged to
have set up the Ekiti rigging plot has bluntly refused to investigate the Ekiti
scandal but had rather nominated Obanikoro for ministerial position when he
should be docked. It is also important to note that the PDP members of the
Senate practically forced Obanikoro’s confirmation through the stout resistance
of the APC senators, the human rights community, the press and the critical
mass that see the entire process as rewarding crime and have therefore called
for the withdrawal of Obanikoro’s nomination.

“While we call on the country’s media, civil society groups
and the critical mass to continue to insist that this reward for criminality
does not stand, we urge Nigerians to see in the appointment and confirmation of
Obanikoro as PDP’s bold statement on impunity and corruption, which it had made
cornerstones of its misrule and throw out the PDP with the vehemence of a
people tired of such brazen promotion of criminality by a cabal that sees
Nigeria as its private estate. We urge Nigerians to make a loud issue of the
nomination and confirmation of an alleged election rigger as a minister few
weeks to a critical election, as an insult to our collective intelligence and
one of the primary reasons to throw out the PDP with an emphatic thud on March
28.”