The Advanced People Democratic Alliance (APDA) has said that the party may adopt the convicted General Overseer of Christian Praying Assembly Chukwuemeka Ezeugo, simply known by his sobriquet, Rev. King, as its presidential candidate for the 2019 election.

Rev King has been convicted for murder and awaiting execution at Sokoto Prison. However, two weeks ago, his campaign posters indicating his presidential aspiration flooded the streets of Lagos. Chairman, Publicity Committee of the party, Brady Chijioke Nwosu, who is also a gubernatorial aspirant in Imo State on the same platform, told Saturday Sun that Rev. King is helping in mobilising people for the party, as he has a very large followership in the country, all of who are already identifying with the party. He, however, noted that the clergyman would go through primaries like other aspirants.

When reminded that Rev. King has been sentenced to death and still awaiting execution, he dismissed it, saying, there are examples of those who have come out of jail to assume high political offices in the country. His words, “Forget about his conviction, he was innocent of the matter for which he was sentenced to death. It was a setup and a phantom. How many courts have convicted those who have looted the country? He didn’t do anything. He is running for presidency, and his poster is everywhere.

“Obasanjo was also in prison and came out to become the president. Even former Abia State governor, T. A. Orji won governorship election while in prison custody. If Obasanjo could become president, then why not an innocent man that was set up and sentenced to death? Even before Rev. King was convicted, the media had already jailed him in the court of public opinion. So, it wasn’t easy for the judge not to follow the public opinion.

On how the clergy was going to go through the party primary while still in jail, Nwosu, who had three times aspired to govern Imo State on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said, Rev. King was already filing his nomination form.

Will he be ruling from jail if he wins? The APDA publicity chairman, said, “let us cross the present hurdle first, until we get there.” On what will happen if he is executed before the election because he is at the mercy of Lagos State government? Nwosu retorted: “Nobody has the power to do that. He didn’t do anything, so, why must they execute him?

“How many of the big people who have destroyed this country has court jailed. Obasanjo has he died? He is still celebrating. Chief Awolowo was even in jail and when he came out he was made the Vice President to Gowon and Minister of Finance. What of a clergyman man who didn’t do anything, but sentenced to death. He is innocent of the offence for which they sentenced him to death.

Drawing his attention to the views of the clergyman’s supporters that Obasanjo was in jail and came out to be elected president, the legal icon said, “They are two different things. Obasanjo was pardoned under the law of the land and released from prison before he ran for the presidency. Have they pardoned Rev King? If not, who is making that comparison?

“There is a difference between somebody who is convicted and is not executed and somebody who is convicted and pardoned according to the law of the land and he comes out. Such a person can run for any political position and that is what happened with Obasanjo, he ran and won the election.

“But, this one is still a convict, and the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land has affirmed his death sentence. So, there is no appeal pending anywhere, why will somebody compare the two cases?

“They are just beating about the bush. That will tell you that there is something fundamentally wrong about this country. For people to go and print his posters probably show the mental panic of the people who are doing this. Maybe it’s his enemies who are trying to remind the government that this man is due for execution. Anyone doing this doesn’t mean well for him.

“You cannot run an election today without joining any political party. All of them are jokers; both Rev King and the political party. This is joke taken too far, and they are making a mockery of the entire system because they know it is weak.

“In a country where there is sanity, Rev King would have been in heaven or hell; he would have been executed a long time ago, but he knows that the system is weak. With this act, he is mocking the system. Rev King, his cohorts and those in his political party are really mocking the Nigerian system because if the system was actually working, Rev King shouldn’t be alive by now.”

•Excerpted from a Saturday Sun report

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