Sen. Joshua Dariye, jailed Plateau State former Governor. |
The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, (CACOL) has
condemned call made by Plateau State branch of the All Progressives Congress,
APC, that Joshua Dariye, a convicted criminal, should stand for election in
2019.
CACOL also lambasted the Plateau APC leadership for justifying
the action of Dariye, a former governor of the state, for collecting the APC
Senate nomination form from prison.
Dariye was sentenced earlier this year to 16 years imprisonment
by Justice Adebukola Banjoko of the Federal High Court Abuja, after being found
guilty of diverting N1.162 billion state ecological fund when he was governor
between 1999 and 2007.
In a press release issued by the organization’s Coordinator of
Media and Publications, Adegboyega Otunuga, on behalf of the Executive
Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran noted that, “It would be recalled that just last
week, the Secretary General of All Progressive Congress (APC) in Plateau state,
Mr. Bashir Sati confirmed that the erstwhile governor of the state, Joshua
Dariye, convicted of misappropriating the money belonging to the people of the
state amounting to over One billion Naira and sentenced to 16 years
imprisonment and now serving his prison term, has actually gone ahead to
procure the party’s form for the Upper legislative house in the National
Assembly.
“This is somebody that ought to be very remorseful and penitent
for the breach of trust and great let-down his heist is tantamount to, not to
overstretch the pains and privation this same financial mistrust has wrecked on
the state. The argument of the APC Secretary General is at best, irresponsible
and reckless considering that Iyiola Omisore was under trial during his own
application for the Senate.
“He ought to have educated himself on the clear difference
between an Awaiting Trial Inmate (ATM) and a Convict. His disparate comparison
is an attempt at desecrating extant provisions of our groundnurm, the 1999
Nigerian Constitution (as amended).”
According to Adeniran, “The 1999 Constitution, Section 107 (1d)
under the ‘Qualification for Membership of House of Assembly and Rights of
Attendance’ clearly states inter alia, ‘No person shall be qualified for
elections to a House of Assembly if within a period of less than ten years
before the date of an election to the House of Assembly, he has been convicted
and sentenced for an offence involving dishonesty or he has been found guilty
of a contravention of the Code of Conduct.”
The CACOL Boss also added: “Though the Acting National Secretary
of APC, Mr. Yekini Nabena remarked that the Nigerian Constitution and the APC
laws do not allow any convict to contest elections from prison and that Joshua
Dariye would be screened out if the party finds out the form has actually been
collected in his behalf, we make bold to say that what Bashir Sati said as the
state’s substantive Secretary General is the true position of things as far as
declaration of intent by Dariye is concerned.
“We therefore insist that this should be condemned, outrightly
by the party and its leadership at the National level as this open rape on the
Constitution is replete with dangerous implications and a major threat to the
burgeoning democracy, if not immediately checked.”
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