The probe of the Speaker of the House of Representatives may have divided the All Nigerian Peoples Party further, as its presidential candidate in the last election, Gen. Mohammadu Buhari, expressed disappointment with the solidarity visit the party‘s Chairman, Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, paid to Mrs. Patricia Etteh.
Expressing disgust over Ume-Ezeoke‘s solidarity visit to the embattled Speaker, Buhari said through Mr. Shehu Yau Darazo, that his supporters had been vindicated as they had an initial suspicion about Ume-Ezeoke‘s credibility and integrity.
”Why should the ANPP Chairman be paying a solidarity visit to the Speaker when her own party chairman has not done so? But we have been vindicated because when we expressed our suspicions about him at the tribunal, people were saying that we were being too rigid and trying to divide the party,” Darazo told Sunday Punch on the telephone.
”The man has no credibility; he has PDP roots and he seems very eager to work for them. Besides, Nigerians should recall Ume-Ezeoke‘s antecedents. He decided to go along with the defunct National Party of Nigeria, the then ruling party, even after his old party, the Nigeria Peoples Party, had ended the NPN/NPP accord.
”Second, all Nigerians can now see that the man cannot be on the same moral scale with serious persons. After all, this is someone who nominated his wife for a ministerial appointment and his son for the position of Special Adviser to the President. ”
However, in a telephone interview with Sunday Punch, the Speaker‘s Special Adviser (Media), Mrs Funke Egbemode, denied Etteh was about to resign her position. She said Etteh was confident that she would triumph after the nine-man House panel investigating her and her deputy, Alhaji Babangida Nguroje, must have completed its assignment. According to her, the camp of the Speaker‘s political adversaries were already in disarray.
He said, ”The rumour is not true. It has no basis at all because she has not been indicted by any panel and she has not committed an offence for anybody to think that way. She remains the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The panel investigating the N628m contracts for the renovation of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker‘s residences is still sitting.
”We have confidence in the panel and I urge all honourable members to refrain from commenting on the subject matter until the panel submits its report to the House.”
Egbemode said, ”The Speaker is not considering resigning from her position and she will not resign. Her opponents are already panicking, but you can see that she is busy attending to her official duties. The contract award was duly processed and we are very confident that there is no basis for her to contemplate resignation.”
By Jide Babalola
The Punch
Sunday, September 16, 2007
