Na-Allah Mohammed Zagga
The Katsina State Government withdrew an N11 billion corruption case against former Governor Ibrahim Shema of PDP. Shema, in turn, agreed to help APC defeat his own party in the governorship and other elections. Shema didn’t officially leave the PDP, but he worked against it behind the scenes. As a result, Shema was recently suspended by the National Headquarters of the PDP for anti party activities.
Shema’s case was not the first on record. Senator Danjuma Goje was facing trial over a N25 billion fraud charges by EFCC. Goje was asked to withdraw his ambition to become Senate President and support Ahmed Lawan and the government agreed to withdraw the fraud charges against him. He did and the charges against were withdrawn. Former EFCC chairman Ibrahim Magu disagreed with the deal, but he lost the fight to the all-powerful Attorney General Abubakar Malami. Magu surrendered the case to the AG and the Minister of Justice killed the case against Goje. Malami said he withdrew the charges against Goje because the case was weak. But shouldn’t the court be left to make that decision?
Reacting to the withdrawal of the case against Goje, the chairman Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) Mr. Olanrewaju Suraju, said: “Many Nigerians have the reason to suspect that transparency is being sacrificed on the altar of politics and horse-trading in the interest of the election of principal officers of the National Assembly.”
A government that takes the anti corruption crusade seriously shouldn’t be doing anything that ruins the credibility of the policy. Is it wise to compromise the policy for the sake of political expediency? How can the government justify giving a crown to some and a cross to others for the same offence? Destroying the credibility of the policy for the sake of political expediency is scandalous and absurd.
