The Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has alleged that there is an orchestrated plan by some politicians to falsely indict him in order to force him out of office.
Ekweremadu, in a statement released by his media office on Thursday, alleged that the masterminds of the plot are planning to publish false and defamatory information against his person.
According to him, those after him are currently scrutinising the accounts of the Senate and accounts of committees in which he had served with the aim of nailing him.
He vowed to resist all forms of intimidation and remain focused to the end.
“The Office of the Deputy President of the Senate wishes to bring to the knowledge of the public some clandestine efforts by desperate political elements to publish false and defamatory information against the office and person of the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.
“These elements are currently making desperate efforts, including scavenging through Senate accounts and committees he served in, with the sole aim of misrepresenting information, maligning, and running him out of office by hook or crook or force him to resign from office as the Deputy President of the Senate.
“The Deputy President of the Senate appreciates the principled stance of most media houses not to be used in this business of blackmail, falsehood, and cheap propaganda.
“Meanwhile, it will interest Nigerians to know that the office has it on good authority that the elements behind this unscrupulous push are the same people whose recent staunch defence of bipartisan leadership in the legislature as rightly being consistent with the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the presidential system of government, and our history is in the public domain.
“The Deputy President of the Senate is ever committed to contributing his quota towards ensuring that the Federal Government of Nigeria provides good governance that caters to the wellbeing of the good people of Nigeria, for it remains the common and primary calling of all of those in government, irrespective of party affiliation.
“However, the Deputy President of the Senate also remains committed to the institution of the National Assembly and independence of the legislature, hence he will not allow himself to be intimidated or stampeded out of office.
“While we advise patriotic Nigerians to be on the lookout for such misinformation and regard them as the puerile propaganda that they are, we want to assure them that just like the phantom alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Rules, this too will surely fail,” he said.
Ekweremadu’s statement is coming on the heels of charges of false declaration of assets instituted against Senate President Bukola Saraki by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), for which he is standing trial.
Since Saraki and Ekweremadu’s emergence as Senate President and Deputy Senate President, respectively, against the wishes of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), they have come under pressure to vacate the offices.
