The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Friday berated President Muhammadu Buhari for allegedly violating his oath of office by using the Federal Executive Council (FEC) Chambers and government resources to conduct the affairs of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
A statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said “Our party describes this action of Mr. President, in using public facilities and resources for APC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, as the height of corruption as well as a desecration of the sanctity of the seat of power and our national values”.
The PDP said that never in the history of Nigeria had governance been so devalued to the extent of using the hallowed chamber of the highest executive body in the country, where high-level executive decisions are taken, for an illegal, wrongly constituted and Nicodemus meeting of a political party.
According to the main opposition party, “This shameful development is a further manifestation of the level of impunity, recklessness, disrespect for rules and disdain for our laws by the APC administration, whose latest action exposes a move towards instituting the art of running processes and programmes through illegality, illicitness, illegitimate and unlawful means driven by crude force and naked power”.
Furthermore, PDP said that it was an indefensible double standard for President Buhari, whose administration has been hounding and prosecuting innocent Nigerians for allegedly using public resources for activities of their political parties, to use the resources and facilities of the FEC chamber for his party’s NEC meeting.
To the PDP, “it is even more distressing that the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, is part of this desecration of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) by functioning as a notary public to a political party and using official facilities of FEC chamber to administer oath of office to a functionary of a political party, in total disregard to his oath of office, the code of conduct prohibitions under the 5th Schedule and extant public service rules”.
PDP said that this wss the same Attorney General, who had been prosecuting others for alleged but unsubstantiated use of public resources for activities of their political parties.
The PDP said that it holds that by using government facilities and resources to promote the activities of his party, the Attorney General has become culpable of the same offence for which he has been prosecuting innocent Nigerians.
PDP said that Malami had therefore become ethically challenged to continue in office as the Chief Law Officer of the nation.
“Our party therefore demands that the Attorney General should immediately resign from office and surrender himself for prosecution”, PDP demanded.
The party said that it was even more disgraceful that the furtive APC NEC meeting at the FEC Chamber was convened in total violation of the APC Constitution, which prescribes 14 days notice for regular NEC meeting and 7 days notice in the case of an emergency meeting under Article 25 (b) (i) and (ii) respectively.
“Such a coup against their own party’s constitution renders the purported APC NEC meeting illegal and decisions taken therein, a complete nullity”, the main opposition party said .
Significantly, PDP said that the kind of marshal orders and threats which President Buhari was issuing out at the NEC meeting without allowing for a debate was a sad reminder of his days at the Supreme Military Council in 1984.
This, it said raised questions on the democratic content of the charade called a NEC meeting by the APC.
Moreover, the party said now that the Governor of Yobe state, Mai Mala Buni, has been sworn in as the Chairman of APC Caretaker Committee, that he has made himself a full administrative officer of the APC and as such, should immediately resign as the Governor of Yobe state, in keeping with Article 17 (iv) of the APC Constitution which prohibits such dual mandate.
The PDP counseled APC leaders to note that Nigeria is a nation governed by law and as such their party will not be allowed to use their crisis to destroy Nigeria’s democratic order.
