…As EFCC submits Interpol, other documents on Diezani to AGF over Extradition***

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday raised the alarm over what it described as the desperation of President Muhammadu Buhari for self-succession.

It said the issue had become a major threat to national unity, stability and a peaceful electoral process.

It, therefore, urged the National Peace Committee, the United Nations and world leaders to save Nigeria from what it called imminent collapse by cautioning Buhari over alleged resort to undemocratic practices.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, stated these during a media briefing in Abuja.

Ologbondiyan said Buhari should be called to order if Nigeria must have peaceful, free, fair and credible general elections in February, adding that Nigeria was in a perilous time.

He claimed that having realised that Nigerians were rallying behind the PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as their next President, the Buhari Presidency was seeking ways to enmesh the electoral process in a crisis.

“The Buhari Presidency has been overheating the polity with its unending manipulations of INEC, muzzling of free speech and escalated clampdown on opposition and civil society organisations and we insist that such must stop if we must have a peaceful election,” he said.

Ologbondiyan, who is also the Director, Media and Publicity of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, said there was no way peace could be guaranteed without free and fair elections.

He stated that already, Nigerians were angry over what he called the foisting of Mrs Amina Zakari as the Chairman of the National Collation Centre Committee of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

According to him,  Buhari’s insistence on having Zakari in charge of the collation of presidential election results was provocative, “a direct affront to the sensibilities of Nigerians and an express invitation to a crisis of epic proportion.”

This, he said, was capable of truncating the electoral process and derailing the nation’s democracy.

Ologbondiyan said, “The world is aware that majority of Nigerians have rejected Zakari. Over 90 per cent of the political parties in the election, as well as major political and socio-cultural groups across the country have also called for her resignation from INEC, yet President Buhari is insisting on her stay in the commission.

“Our party is aware of plots by the Buhari Presidency to use  Zakari, who has been mentioned as part of those involved in the rigging of the 2018 governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states, to plunge the 2019 general elections into controversies, truncate the flow of results and even render elections in some critical states inconclusive, to pave way for allocation of fictitious votes to President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress.”

He added, “We want the National Peace Committee and the world to know that as long as Amina Zakari is in INEC, a peaceful election is not guaranteed because she has the mandate to abuse the process and this will not be accepted by Nigerians.

“The PPCO therefore calls on the National Peace Committee to immediately speak out on the impropriety of having Amina Zakari in INEC as well as insist on her removal so that we can have a credible and peaceful presidential election.”

Ologbondiyan stated that peaceful elections could not be guaranteed as long as the Buhari Presidency continued to intimidate and unleash provocative acts of totalitarianism against opposition figures and persons perceived to be against Buhari’s self-succession bid.

He alerted the international community and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, to the alleged ongoing use of the police to clamp down on opposition figures, particularly members of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council and outspoken civil society groups on trump-up criminal charges.

According to him, part of the  plot was to charge such individuals before certain compromised judicial officers in various states, who, he alleged  had been briefed to detain, silence and put such opposition figures and CSO members out of circulation until elections were concluded.

In the meantime, documents for former Petroleum Resources Minister Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke’s extradition has been submitted to the Attorney-Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN).

Besides a comprehensive investigative  report on the ex-minister, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) the document included a Red Alert watch-list by the International Police Organization (INTERPOL), and court judgments on the forfeiture of some prime assets by Mrs.  Alison-Madueke.

According to a source, who spoke in confidence with our correspondent, the extradition process would soon begin.

The source said: “ We are hastening up the process for the extradition of the ex-minister of Petroleum Resources from the United Kingdom. The EFCC has made the extradition a priority goal in 2019.

“We have submitted documents to the AGF, including investigative report, court judgments on forfeiture of assets by Diezani and his assets, judicial decisions on some of his co-accused persons, and the INTERPOL alert on her.

“She has finally forfeited some prized assets. The  assets lost to the Federal Government by the ex-Minister include a multi-storey building in Banana Island Foreshore Estate in Ikoyi, Lagos; a real estate comprising six flats in Ikoyi and an estate of 21 mixed housing in Yaba, Lagos.

“Many properties allegedly linked with Diezani have also been placed under interim forfeiture by the anti-graft commission

“ All is set for her extradition from the United Kingdom. It is left to the AGF, who is constitutionally empowered to see the extradition process through.”

The source added: “ We have fulfilled the conditions precedent to bring her back home for trial.

”The extradition of the ex-minister is on our  priority list for the year. “

“ This commission has also filed before the Apo Division of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory five charges  of conspiracy and illegal act of accepting and giving gratifications against Alison-Madueke and a co-defendant, Mr. Jide Omokore, who is a former Chairman of Atlantic Energy Drilling Company.”

Justice Valentine Ashi on December 3, 2018, granted leave to the EFCC to arraign the two defendants.

“ On December 4, the court granted an ex parte application by the EFCC and  issued an arrest warrant against Alison-Madueke,  to enable the police and other security agencies to arrest her within 72 hours.”

The Citizen with additional report from The Nation