TheCable

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described Itse Sagay, chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption (PACAC), as a rogue.

In a statement issued by Bolaji Abdullahi, its spokesman, the ruling party said President Muhammadu Buhari dug Sagay out of “inevitable oblivion”.

Abdullahi said this in response to a report in which Sagay described members of the APC as unprincipled.

Referring to the professor of law as an elephant who knows how to tear people down, Abdullahi said Sagay only feels accountable to his own ego.

“Clearly if we have today, anyone in our government or, by extension, the party who feels accountable only to his own ego; who does not feel the need to bridle his tongue for the sake of anything that is higher than himself; who feels independent of everyone and every institution; that person is professor Sagay,” he said.

“He has shown disregard for the president who dug him out of inevitable oblivion.”

The APC spokesman said Sagay’s statement that he would not stop‎ making controversial comments even if the president asked him to was a demonstration of “quintessential rogue elephant behaviour”.

“In his sheer arrogance, he forgets that it is impossible for him to call out the leadership of the party as ‘weak’ and ‘unprincipled’ without indicting the president, who is the leader of the party and has the fundamental responsibility to build the party,” he said.

“If Sagay had any iota of respect for the man who dug him back from inevitable oblivion and put him in a position in which he now feels superior to everyone, he would channel his opinions and advice to the president on how to make the party stronger and more principled. It appears however that Sagay does not have anything constructive to say about anything. He only knows how to tear down and assault everyone and everything.

“We want to remind Sagay and all other appointees of our government that the only reason they occupy their current position today is because the APC won the election. There is, therefore, a matter of honour to show decorum and respect for the party and its leadership. You cannot love the fruit and hate the tree that produced it‎.”

Besides the APC, Sagay has had a brush with the national assembly for accusing the institution of corruption.