PDP reacts to EFCC investigation against Saraki

The opposition People’s Democratic Party said the fresh investigation by Economic Financial Crime Commission against the outgoing Senate President Bukola Saraki explains “the Federal Government’s obnoxious and distasteful resort to intimidation and evidence-fishing.”

“The PDP holds that this renewed witch-hunt tailored against Senator Saraki and perceived opposition leaders further confirms that the Buhari Presidency and the APC have become frenetic over the overwhelming evidence that our party will present at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal,” PDP spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan said in a statement on Wednesday.

EFCC Monday declared it will probe Saraki’s activities between 2003 to 2011 when he was the governor of Kwara State.

Saraki, while reacting to EFCC’s claim, said the anti-graft commission’s plan to probe him is a bid to discredit him as International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) ambassador.

EFCC, however, responded that the probe was not in connection to his appointment as IHRC ambassador because the background of the inquiry was quite a long time ago.

“Against the background of the posse of indicting petitions and other evidence available to the EFCC, even Saraki will agree with the Commission that putting him through a legitimate forensic inquiry is the legitimate route to establish his integrity as a public servant,” EFCC added.

But Ologbondiyan maintained that PDP has information on how some members of APC plan to benefit from the “new siege to harm key leaders of the opposition party, under a certain guise.”

He further affirmed that the plan to probe Saraki is “part of the larger plot for a renewed clampdown on key opposition figures and perceived political opponents of the APC administration, particularly, to frustrate the determination to retrieve our stolen presidential mandate at the tribunal.”