Former Caretaker Committee Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Ahmed Makarfi, has condemned the recent move by the All Progressives Congress, APC lawmakers in Benue State Assembly to impeach Governor Samuel Ortom.
In a statement on Monday by Mr Makarfi’s spokesman, Mukhtar Sirajo, the PDP chieftain said that the move was a clear show of desperation and ingratitude.
He described as appalling the party’s resolve to impeach a democratically elected governor for the simple reason that some quarters have been slighted by his decision to move from one party to another.
According to him, the move by the party to clinch to power, by all means, is an unlawful, disgraceful and undemocratic act, “which portends a danger of monumental proportions to the country and its institutions.”
The statement read in part: “As Nigerians woke up to yet another tragicomical drama, this time around playing out in Benue State, I am disturbed at the seeming obsession with some forces who seem bent on truncating our democracy and ridiculing all of us in the comity of civilized nations.
“Senator Ahmed Makarfi believes that freedom of association is the inalienable right of every Nigerian as enshrined in the nation’s constitution and all international conventions.
“More importantly, however, the fact is that impeachment of a state governor is a legal and constitutional function, the process of which is clearly spelt out in our constitution, with no ambiguity.”
The Senator reminded Nigerians that the APC was the greatest beneficiary of defections to which Mr Ortom is part.
He Noted that when the PDP was in power it respected the rights of the people to freely decide what political platform(s) to identify with, “a stance that the APC, more than any other party, reaped bountifully from.”
“It, therefore, smacks of hypocrisy and a brazen disrespect for fundamental human rights for the same party to now deny people the right defect from it for whatever reason(s).
“It is imperative, as far as Senator Makarfi is concerned, that people’s rights and freedoms of movement and association and all other rights be respected fully by the state and its agencies; and that both the APC and its government brace up for more people exercising these fundamental rights and respect same'”
Mr Makarfi, therefore, appealed to the people of Benue State to remain peaceful and law abiding and be assured that Nigerians are with them in this trying moment.
“Senator Makarfi once again calls on all Nigerians to, within lawful means, stand up to this brazen attempt to stifle the democratic space by a party that was the biggest beneficiary of defections, which is now jittery and clearly uncomfortable at the prospect of getting a dose of its own medicine.
“For the umpteenth time, Senator Makarfi reiterates his call for the restructuring of our institutions and agencies to make them more answerable to the State rather than the political operators.”
