Civil rights activist and lawmaker in the 8th National Assembly, Senator Shehu Sani’s ordeal in the hands of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is politically motivated, his Special Adviser on Politics and Strategy, Mallam Ahmed Suleiman has said. According to him, following the alleged involvement of a business tycoon, Alhaji Ismaila Funtua in the EFCC case, Senator Sani may spend another 14 days in the anti-graft custody for further investigation.
Suleiman said: “As far as we are concerned, Shehu Sani’s ordeal in the hands of EFCC is politically motivated. If you recall, Senator Sani has been critical of the activities of the Buhari Government, and they are not happy with him. I can assure you that they cannot silence him.“He is supposed to be facing a civil case. How come they seized his handsets and were asking for their passwords.”
In a statement to journalists in Kaduna, Sani’s aide said the alleged extortion case, labeled against Sani by Alhaji Sani Dauda, Chief Executive Officer of ASD Motors, before EFCC, took a new dimension last Thursday, January 2, 2020, as ASD has allegedly dragged names of more prominent Nigerians, including Mallam Isa Funtua into the case.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to adhere strictly to the constitutional principle of rule of law, by calling off the persistent one-sided charade of media persecution of Shehu Sani, using the so-called investigations over allegations of impersonation or fraud.
“We have broken our dignified silence because of the continuous media orchestrations and unjustifiable trial of the Kaduna born civil rights advocate, who we suspect may be a victim of the political vendetta of the current administration that has zero tolerance approach to civilised opposition and the exercises of all constitutional freedoms guaranteed under the chapter 4 of the 1999 Constitution.
“We in the organised human rights community have chosen to first of all restrain ourselves from jumping into the media fray to defend the detained civil Rights advocacy leader, Comrade Shehu Sani, because we thought EFCC would have by now adopted the global best practices and put a total stop to all media orchestrations and stampeding, with the aim of first of all achieving through the illegal backdoor channel the total demonisation of a citizen in its custody before even heading to court to obtain an exparte order to further detain the citizen, deprive him of his civil liberties and freedom.”and to further instigate rounds of one sided media warfare against the Nigerian citizen, even when section 36(5) of the Nigerian Constitution in a very unambiguous fashion provided that all accused persons are innocent in the eyes of the law.”
Guardian
