The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has dismissed calls by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend two of his ministers accused of corruption.
The PDP had on Friday urged the president to emulate the National Judicial Council’s decision to suspend seven judges recently arrested by the State Security Service for alleged corruption.
The party said in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Dayo Adeyeye, that two of the judges, Sylvester Ngwuta and Inyang Okoro of the Supreme Court, had alleged that they were the targets of a witch-hunt because they refused bribes from two ministers.
They named the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, and his Science and Technology counterpart, Ogbonnaya Onu.
“In order to allow for a fair and independent investigation, it is incumbent on President Muhammadu Buhari to ask these ministers to step aside pending the conclusion of investigation into the allegations,” Mr. Adeyeye had said. “The judiciary has set a very good example in its quest to fight corruption.”
But the APC said in a statement on Sunday that the call “flies in the face of reason, fairness, common sense and cause of justice”.
The statement was signed by Davies Ikanya, APC chairman, Rivers State, and emailed to PREMIUM TIMES from Mr. Amaechi’s account.
“It is a known fact that embattled Justices Sylvester Ngwuta and John Inyang Okoro of the Supreme Court who are currently under DSS investigation for serious corruption charges only resorted to the cheap, convenient, everyday reaction of people caught red-handed committing crimes in order to divert attention away from the grave reality confronting them especially when faced with sufficient evidence,” the APC said.
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