Prosecute our members if found corrupt, PDP tells Buhari

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh

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The Peoples Democratic Party has called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to hesitate to investigate and prosecute any of its members found to have corruptly enriched himself.

The party said because of its integrity, it would neither condone nor albeit corrupt persons.The call followed the statement made by the President in which he said he had started receiving some documents which indicted some former ministers and other top government officials of massive fraud, including oil theft.
The affected ministers and presidential aides were said to have served under former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Bayelsa State-born politician is a member of the now opposition party, the PDP, and was also its presidential candidate during the last election.

But in prosecuting the affected members, the PDP however said that the Federal Government must adhere to the rule of law.

National Publicity Secretary of the main opposition party, the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, stated the party’s position in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja.

Metuh said that as a policy, the party would not hesitate to condemn anyone found to have flouted the law of the land.

He said, “They (any PDP members found to be corrupt) should be investigated and prosecuted according to the law of the land. All we want is that the law of the land must be followed.

“We will, however, insist that there must be respect for the human rights and that the rights of the individuals must not be violated.

“The law assumes everyone to be innocent until proven otherwise. With this, the government must not see anyone to be corrupt first. They are innocent until found guilty by court of law.”

He also added that it would be wrong for the government or anyone to see members of the PDP as criminals, even when there was nothing incriminating found with them.

Metuh said everyone, including suspects, must be seen to even be innocent until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction.

Metuh called on the government to also beam its searchlights on members of the ruling APC, adding that the fight against corruption must be holistic.

“We as a party will support the fight against corruption. However, the fight must be holistic and there mustn’t be any sacred cow,” he added.

Meanwhile, governors of the PDP under the aegis of the PDP Governors’ Forum on Wednesday night in Abuja, expressed concern over the current spate of Boko Haram attacks in the North-East and asked the military to wake up.

The governors, after their meeting, expressed concern that in spite of the security measures by the Armed Forces, “the sect seems to be intensifying its attacks.”

The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, said even as they met, the Governor of Gombe State, Ibrahim Dankwambo, received a call over another attack in his state.

Emmanuel, while calling on the Armed Forces to step up their operations, also lamented the state of the Internally Displaced Persons.

He said, “We actually call on the Armed Forces to step up their security measures to see how they can stem the tide of this menace.

“It is really a thing of concern to the PDP government that in spite of all the efforts in the Armed Forces, these guys are still proving to be more formidable.

“So, we are sure if the Armed Forces step up a little bit, they should be able to curtail it.”

Referring to the situation in Gombe State, he said, “We received another report of another attack. These are things we believe we should rise up as a country and curtail it.”