The widely reported endorsement by the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of the immediate-past Minister for Niger Delta Affairs and Senator-elect from Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial Zone, Godswill Akpabio, as his preferred candidate for the office of the Senate President, of the 10th Senate has been described as the indubitable evidence of Tinubu’s resolve to blunt the fight against corruption.

A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), which made the observation on Sunday in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, noted that Akpabio’s emergence as Senate President would downgrade the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to a mere parastatal of government and a toothless bulldog. It said such development would mark the end of anti-graft crusade.

The group also described as a coup d’état, the overbearing influences of both the National Executive Council of the ruling All Progressives Congress and the President-elect to railroad their handpicked elected legislators as the people to form the hierarchy of the 10th session of the National Assembly.

It therefore urged the legislators-elect to stand up and defend the autonomy of the legislature, failing which the next session of the National Assembly would be just the bootlickers of the holder of the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, just like the outgoing Ahmed Lawan-led 9th Session of the National Assembly.

On the extensively reported endorsement of Akpabio as the next Senate President by the President-elect and the governors of the All Progressives Congress, HURIWA would inevitably lead to the scrapping of EFCC, or at the least, the administrative downgrading of the Commission to make to become compromised and weak.

HURIWA which based it views on the several invitations extended to Akpabio by EFCC, warned that downgrading the fight against corruption would lead to capital flight and discourage foreign direct investments into Nigeria which would crumble the national economy.

By rooting for Akpabio, HURIWA said it means that even before being sworn into office, Tinubu has already embraced corruption by overlooking the groundswell of allegations of theft of public fund made by EFCC against the former Akwa Ibom Governor and erstwhile Minister for Niger Delta Affairs wanted by the anti-graft agency for interrogation.

HURIWA recalled that there had been allegations of an N40 billion fraud perpetrated in the Niger Delta Development Commission, which was headed by Akpabio for three years. In 2020, the Senate and the House of Representatives resolved to probe the alleged N40 billion financial recklessness of the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC. Also, there were allegations of over N86 billion contract scams involving the Senator-elect and a former Acting Managing Director of the NDDC, Prof. Kemebradikumo Pondei, which the EFCC had been investigating.

Besides, HURIWA recalled that the anti-graft agency had in the past arrested Akpabio over the alleged theft of N108.1 billion of Akwa Ibom funds. The EFCC had earlier invited Akpabio to appear for questioning on March 29 but his lawyer, Umeh Kalu (SAN), in a letter to the anti-graft agency alleged that his client was suffering from pneumonia and cardiac arrhythmia and would be unable to honour the invitation on March 29.

HURIWA therefore called on the President-elect not to continue to give reasons why Nigerians should be very apprehensive that his administration would be the worst ever and most notoriously corrupt and crime-tolerated government in the world.

It also warned the federal legislators and those awaiting inauguration in June, that the National Assembly stands the risk of becoming the stooges of the executive arm of government if they become enslaved to the whims and caprices of the President-elect by allowing him to impose “his boys and girls” as the hierarchical team of the next National Assembly.

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