A group of Igbo people, going by the name: Coalition of Eastern Nigeria Political Pressure Groups (CENPPG) has described the recent arrest and trial of the Nigeria’s former Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Dieziani Allison-Madueke, in London as a calculated witch-hunt and vendetta intended to humiliate her over her principled stand to indigenize the oil industry.
The group, in a statement in Owerri at the weekend, condemned what it termed: “a clear case of witch-hunt against the former minister by those who felt she did not favour them while in office.”
The statement which was signed by the Chancellor of CENPPG, Nze Elvis Agukwe, accused the federal government of grandstanding and intimidation of persons perceived to have been the back-bone of the former administration “with a pre-determined view to demonize them.
“What Nigerians demand is transparency in the gamut of the war against not only economic corruption but also political corruption.”
Agukwe said that since the arrest of Allison-Madueke, those he called “hired writers and sundry groups” have been procured to demonize her even when she had not been found guilty of any crime whatsoever.
The CENPPG boss who is a former Commissioner for Information in Imo State, said that the arrest of the former Minister was politically motivated and called on the federal government to come clean on its complicity in the entire saga.
“If the government is sincere in fighting corruption, why have they continued to ignore the Halliburton fraud scandal? What they are doing with Allison-Madueke is a road show meant to entertain their whims,” he argued.
Agukwe regretted that some Nigerians are “celebrating the persecution of a woman who served her country well. It was under her tenure that the oil industry was opened up to Nigerians to benefit. That accounts for why she is being hounded by the powerful who used to benefit alone.”
He said that he was surprised that Nigerian women were not coming out to defend one of their own even “when it is obvious that this is nothing but witch-hunt and injustice against Nigerian women.” [myad]
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