Why Buhari Cannot Stop Saraki CCT Trial- APC Chieftain

By ORIH CHIBUIKE, The Nigerian Voice, Abuja

Publicity Secretary of the South-East Caucus of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Osita Okechukwu has given reason why President Muhammadu Buhari cannot stop the ongoing falsification of Assets declaration trial of the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal CCT.

Osita who spoke to newsmen on Tuesday in a Press Conference he addressed at the National Secretariat of the APC in Abuja said "Mr. President on one hand cannot be fighting corruption and on the other hand he will tell the code of conduct to stop trying the Senate President.

Osita who is also the Publicity Secretary of the Lagos State chapter of the APC was responding to complains of a party chieftain, Zakari Baraje on the Senate President travails at the CCT also added that " But what I am saying is that Baraje should know that we have a four year mandate and in the first year, Mr. President have two critical elements; one is the corruption that made us not to have new refineries.

"I have the sympathy of Baraje that our friend, the Senate President is at the tribunal, there is nobody who would not be concerned about it. He (Baraje) belongs to the school that alleges that Mr. Senate President couldn't have been tried, if he did not become the Senate President that there are other Senators, Ministers and other public officers who have one thing in their cupboard, one skeleton in their cupboard or the other I am not dismissing that.

He also pointed out that, already the President have been accused of been selective in his anti-corruption crusade and that those who are accusing the President of been selective have forgotten that they presided over the affairs of this country for sixteen years with reckless abandon. And now that they are called upon to give account of their stewardship they are crying hell.

"For those who accused him of been selective also forget that if you are trying Col. Sambo Dasuki (Rtd) as former NSA, you can't try Osita Okechukwu because I wasn't an NSA and luckily for me, they didn't call me when the Bazar was going on. You can't try me for NIMASA, because I wasn't the D-G of NIMASA , I wasn't a contractor in NIMASA, I wasn't a Consultant in NIMASA, I wasn't a messenger in NIMASA.

According to him, "the sixteen years of the PDP calls them to question, because at a certain point, the oil was been sold at $147- $145 per barrel and we ask where is the money. But it is a human memory that today the Nigeria people cannot know who raped the Nigerian economy.

"So Baraje yes, I know where is coming from there is sense in what he is saying that had Doctor Bukola Saraki did not contest for Senate President, may be he couldn't have been tried that is a point that I may not be controverted. But on the other hand, for you also to say that Mr. President to stop the trial, is also neither here nor there, because, its goes against the tenet.

"Don't forget the manifestoes of the APC, I am a member of the Merger Committee and also member of the manifestoe sub-committee. It became our first cardinal programme and if we don't plucked all these loopholes even if fuel is sold at a $1000 per barrel, we are not going anywhere that is the truth of the matter, that is what the Chinese did.

"It is the day the Chinese enacted a law that anybody found culpable to be executed, because corruption is a human factor, but if you don't curb it strongly it can't go, because some of, I also want to have a private jet it would have been interest that if I have a private jet, I could have taken you people to one Island, after the interview, I will return you here so that is the position my brother

Osita described the current crisis in the APC as the usual characteristics of all major political parties across the globe, which he expressed optimism that APC would have a common ground and reach a consensus as the party bargain on the negotiation table.

On the 2016 budget impasse, Osita pleaded with both the Executive and Legislature to reach out to one another to interface for the general interest of the nation at large.

He chided the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) whom he accused of destroying the commonwealth of the nation and refused to save for the raising day in the days of plenty, while oil was selling for over $100.