• Hails Saraki’s CCT triumph
From Wole Balogun, Ado-Ekiti
Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has denied claims by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that he collected N9.6 billion as second tranche of the Paris Club refund.
Fayose said he has not receive such payment but was told two days ago that it is still being worked on.
Regardless, the governor has hailed the triumph of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) as another victory of Nigerians over tyranny
He said: “I am happy that I predicted that the CCT will absolve the Senate president in my 2017 predictions and it has come to pass. There is nothing that people like us say with our mouth that will not come to pass.”
Governor Fayose, who drew the attention of Nigerians to number eight of his 22 predictions for year 2017, said: “I said it categorically that the CCT will absolve Saraki and today, the prediction came to pass.”
In his reaction to the CCT judgment discharging Saraki, in a chat with Daily Sun yesterday, the governor said it was another lesson for the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC Federal Government that criminal cases are not won on the pages of newspapers.
He congratulated the Senate President, and urged him to see his victory as a challenge to him and the entire members of the National Assembly; to always stand up to defend rule of law and fundamental rights of Nigerians.
“The government of the day is merely chasing shadows with its so-called corruption fight. The fight against Saraki and many other eminent Nigerians being with-hunted by the Federal Government is doomed to fail from the start. I have maintained that administration of president Buhari is not fighting any corruption. Rather, what is being done is hiding under anti-corruption fight to persecute, humiliate, harass and malign perceived political enemies.
“They go about trying their perceived political foes in the media, with the aim of destroying their names when they do not have any evidence that can sustain court trial and it is for this reason they have been losing corruption cases.
“Look at all the noise they made when they started Senator Saraki’s case; it was as if he will be sent to jail the following week. But, when it was time for them to prove their allegations, they could not.
“Even the case of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd), that they said stole $2.1 billion arms money and that destructive weapons capable of disrupting the peace of any city in Nigeria were found in his possession, why are they the ones seeking for secret trial while Dasuki they accused is insisting on open trial?
“Up till today, they have not brought any evidence against Dasuki. They have not even been able to commence his trial. Instead, they have continually disobeyed court orders that he should be released from detention,” he said.