The major opposition political party in Nigeria and former ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party has condemned what they called ‘media trial of opposition by the All Progressive Congress-led government.
The party which, in particular, was referring to the corruption trial of a former governor of Kaduna state, Mr Yaro who is being tried by Economic And Financial Crimes Commission on corruption charges, took a swipe at the President Buhari administration and the EFCC. The party faulted the ruling party the way and manner they have gone about parading the former governor who they claim is innocent until proven otherwise by a court as a criminal.
In a press statement released by the publicity secretary of the party, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, he said the EFCC and APC are going after perceived political opponents under the disguise of fighting corruption and want the world to know about it.
The statement by the PDP tried to draw the attention of the international community to the events they said was a political witch hunt on the opposition, all in a bid to silence them before the 2019 general election.
The publicity secretary in the statement tagged prominent world leaders both in Europe and the United State.
Putting up a photo of the former Governor Muktar Yaro, in what looked like a mugshot from the EFCC, the PDP had this to say:
We condemn in very strong terms the unrelenting media trial and persecution of opposition members and other perceived political opponents of the APC, under the guise of fight against corruption.
Whereas the PDP is in no way opposed to the fight against corruption, we are completely against Muhammadu Buhari’s resort to media trial, constant harassment, unlawful detention of opposition members, using various agencies, particularly, the Economic And Financial Crimes Comission EFCC
We reject the emerging trend by the EFCC, wherein accused persons and individuals who are still under investigation on alleged corruption charges are paraded and forced to hang criminal tags, as meted out to former Kaduna State Governor Muktar Yero and others.
This desperation of EFCC , working under the instruction of Muhammadu Buhari, to declare a guilty verdict on an accused persons without trial by the courts, all in the bid to bring perceived political opponents to public odium is totally and completely unacceptable.