‘You’ve Gone Mad With Power,’ Ohaneze Knocks Presidency Over Ekweremadu’s Arrest

Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohaneze Ndigbo, has reacted to the arrest of Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The group’s publicity secretary, Uche Achi-Okpaga, in a statement said the presidency has “gone mad with power”.

Recalling how the homes of senate presiding officers were barricaded and the “Police brigandage in the Benue State House of Assembly,” Ohaneze said it was unfortunate that security agencies now operate as the militant wing of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

The statement read, “It has become imperative to state without equivocation that Nigeria’s democracy has been put under the custody of the APC and the Nigeria Police Force, the EFCC and other security agencies have been turned to militant wings of the APC.

“We are not oblivious that there is a grand design to intimidate and cow every assumed adversary of the Government but we encourage Nigerians not to be undaunted in speaking against the totalitarian and fascist embellishments of the government.

“The arrest, intimidation and harassment of Senator Ike Ekweremadu lends credence to the fact that democracy is collapsing irretrievably.

“It is obvious that this action is a continuation of the ugly and uncivil events of last week where the once gallant Nigeria Police and the EFCC became lords unto themselves and moved to barricade the residences of the Senate President and his Deputy respectively.

“Having failed in that orchestrated attempt to prevent the Senate presiding officers from accessing the National Assembly the fateful day they decided to go for Ekweremadu’s jugular.

“The events of this week including the Police brigandage in the Benue State House of Assembly only depict that the Presidency has gone mad with presidential powers and l see it consuming them,” the statement added.

The statement condemned “the current ploy to coerce all and sundry into one political party” describing it as the height of political naivety.

“Democracy has been deadly raped in Nigeria and this is part of reasons that we have insisted on restructuring the system. With the way things are turning upside down and inside out we are only been vindicated on our stand on restructuring.

“This Government has gotten it wrong virtually in all fores. The social media is awash with criticisms of the recent idea of building a refinery in the President’s northern State of Katsina while the oil is in the South but it is in the South that you want to build cattle ranches when the cattle and the owners are in the North. This is so paradoxical as it is antithetic.