The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is either engaging in blatant mischief or wallowing in crass ignorance by branding its Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande an ex-convict just because he was merely a political prisoner and not a criminal convict, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) said on Thursday.
In a statement issued in Abuja and made available to Huhuonline.com by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party described any attempt to label Chief Akande an ex-convict in a pejorative sense as an exercise in futility because he was neither convicted for abuse of office nor for any corruption-related offence by a duly constituted court. It recalled that the Special Military Tribunal that tried and sentenced hundreds of politicians, including Chief Akande, in the 1980s cannot be a reason to label all those it tried and convicted criminal ex-convicts.
It reminded the PDP that the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) ordered its members to boycott the proceeding of the tribunal simply because it failed to meet the standard of a properly-constituted court. “If those who were tried and convicted by military tribunals are indeed deemed to have been properly tried and found guilty of the offences for which they were charged, many of them would not have gone ahead to hold important elective and appointive positions in the polity,” read a part of the statement. “Outside Nigeria you have global icon, Nelson Mandela, who was tried, found guilty and jailed for life in 1964. Of course it will be laughable for anyone trying to denigrate Mandela to tag him an ex-convict, except of course that person is a member of the PDP! ”Chief Bisi Akande, whom the PDP has chosen to pick on in its misguided mudslinging, is an embodiment of honesty, integrity, transparency and decency, who is more of a role model to our youth than most members of the PDP. He served creditably in the private and the public sector, where he held many top posts including that of a Governor. “Today, at 74, those rare attributes that have come to define Chief Akande — honesty, decency, integrity and public service — and have become synonymous with him.
That is why we are proud to hold him up as our Chairman.” ACN advised the ruling party to expend its energy on repairing its leaking tattered umbrella, instead of trying to denigrate a man widely respected by the people and held up as a sharp distinction of mankind at a time people are increasingly being defined by their vanities rather than the content of their character. “Part of the reason the PDP has failed Nigeria is that it does not know where to focus its energy. Today in the party, the National Working Committee is fighting the president, and governors are bent on dealing with the chairman.
The party is crumbling right before the eyes of all Nigerians whom it has pauperized since 1999. And all it can do is to focus on denigrating a man like Chief Akande. “Well, we have got news for the PDP: While the legacy of Chief Akande is assured, that of the PDP is not. Therefore, we advise the sinking behemoth to turn its attention elsewhere, as it awaits its Waterloo.” The party, however, refrained from denying the allegation that Femi Gbajiabiamila, a member of the Federal House of Representatives under the ACN, had a judgement delivered against him by the Supreme Court of Georgia, as alleged by the PDP.
