TheCable

The All Progressives Congress says that despite the Peoples Democratic Party’s attempt to frustrate President Muhammadu Buhari’s fight against corruption by making bogus allegations, anti-corruption agencies will not stop inviting public officers for questioning.

On Sunday, the PDP alleged that the APC government was using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to harass its members so as to stop it from regaining power in 2019.

The party cited the investigation of Godswill Akpabio, senate minority leader and former Akwa Ibom state governor, by the EFCC, as an example of Buhari’s selective fight against corruption.

But on Monday, APC said the Buhari administration would not micro-manage the anti-corruption agencies; hence “it is wrong for the PDP to accuse the APC-led federal government of unleashing the agencies against the opposition”.

The party also described as worn-out, PDP’s allegation that the anti-corruption war of the Buhari administration is selective.

“The ceaseless cry of selective anti-corruption battle is a bogey invented by the PDP to intimidate the anti-corruption agencies, and it will not work. It is the PDP’s strategy to stifle the fight against corruption,” Lai Mohammed, national publicity secretary of APC, said in the statement.

“How can the PDP claim to support the anti-graft battle when every time any of its members is called in for questioning, it runs to the media to shout that the battle is ‘selective’? Is it possible that anyone who is invited for questioning will not belong to a party, an ethnic group or a certain faith?”

The APC said the anti-corruption agencies had a duty to investigate petitions sent to them, irrespective of who was involved, but observed that invitation for questioning was not the same as conviction.

“Those who have nothing to fear must be willing to clear their names by honouring any invitation, and only the guilty needs be afraid. The PDP must stop being hysterical over such invitations which are not going to stop simply because the opposition has called a press conference to cry wolf where there is none,” the party said.