The
All Progressives Congress (APC) says it will not shield its members who are
found wanting of graft allegations.
National
Publicity Secretary of the party, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi, who said this at the
weekend in an interview with journalists in Abuja, was reacting to concerns
expressed by members of the APC Caucus in the House of Representatives at a
meeting last Thursday with the party.
They
had alleged that the Chief Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee (NWC)
was shielding some members who were allegedly disrespecting the National
Assembly.
The
concerns focused on the actions of the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (SGF), Engr. Babachir David Lawan and the Comptroller-General (CG)
of the Nigerian Customs Service (NSC), retired Colonel Hameed Ali.
“You are right. The issue came up. They
(caucus) believe that the party has been shielding some executives of
government who are also members of the party, and that is why they are able to,
in their own words, disrespect the National Assembly.
“But
we are not going to support anybody to disrespect our National Assembly and I
believe that some of these issues that are coming up will very soon be resolved
and as you have learned earlier, the party said we are going to intervene on
some of these issues and try to resolve them.
“I
don’t think trying to intervene in a way of trying to resolve the issues could
be interpreted to mean that we are protecting some of these individuals that
are involved. Our desire is to see that there is stability in the system and
the polity is not unnecessarily overheated by issues that can be resolved
amicably,” he said.
“Our president’s major commitment is to fight
corruption. If anybody is believed to have done certain things that they
weren’t supposed to have done, even at the level of suspicion, I think the National
Assembly has the right to investigate,” he added.
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