PDP said its chairman is not being investigated for graft
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has declared that its recently appointed Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, is not under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The party in a statement by its spokesperson, Olisa Metuh, on Sundayclaimed that media reports suggesting that Mr. Mu’azu was under investigation is mischievous and misleading.
The EFCC had invited Mr. Mu’azu for questioning over allegations of misappropriating N19.8 billion belonging to Bauchi when he was Governor of the state from 1999 to 2007.
The anti-graft agency had also in October 2010 issued a statement denying that Mr. Muazu was cleared of the allegations against him.
“We wish to state emphatically that ex-governor Adamu Muazu is still being investigated and as such could not have been cleared of graft allegations against him.
“The former governor who until recently has been out of the country is still expected to honour an invitation to interview a team of operatives investigating the case against him”, EFCC had said in a statement by its spokesperson at the time, Femi Babafemi.
The EFCC has not written any statement since then clearing the governor of graft. He is, however, yet to be charged to court.
The PDP however, said publications that Mr. Muazu is still under investigation are parts of schemes to distract its national chairman from his “determination and commitment to rebuild and reposition the PDP as the pre-eminent party in Nigeria.”
The PDP state that at the end of his tenure as governor of Bauchi State, Mr. Mu’azu, like many other governors who had completed their tenures, was invited by the EFCC to respond to some petitions.
It said Mr. Mu’azu was never invited again by the EFCC on any other issue.
It also said succeeding government, elected on the platform of the defunct opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party in 2007 instituted a Panel of Inquiry which went ahead to issue a White Paper against Mr. Mu’azu in spite of the fact that he did not appear before it.
The panel was constituted by Governor Isa Yuguda who has since defected to the PDP and is now the party’s leader in Bauchi.
“In the exercise of his lawful rights, Governor Mu’azu challenged the entirety of the White Paper in suit no BA/295m/2009 at the Bauchi State High Court, No. 1. The suit was heard by no other judge than the Chief Judge of Bauchi State, Justice Mohammed Ibrahim Zango, who after hearing all the arguments, set aside the whole findings and quashed it into the dustbin of history.
“Consequently, Governor Mu’azu remains cleared of all allegations as contained in the said White Paper,” the PDP said.
The ruling party said it is ‘highly misleading’ for any person to make statements or sponsor publications purporting that Mr. Mu’azu is under investigation or any form of trial whatsoever.
“We urge those behind such statements and publications to desist from such, bearing in mind that there is divine judgment for those who bear false witness against the innocent,” the statement said.
Efforts to speak to the spokesperson of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, were unsuccessful as his phone line was switched off.
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