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    • Features
    • Updated: November 04, 2022

    Is Ike Ekweremadu A True Nigerian Patriot?

    Is Ike Ekweremadu A True Nigerian Patriot?

    Ike Ekweremadu

    Every time politicians are asked why they are representing the people, they form the opinion that they are running for such office because of the people, but with the news making the rounds about Senator Ike Ekweremadu, should we still call him and a host of others in a similar web a patriot?

    Today a Federal High Court in Abuja directed that 40 landed properties belonging to the former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu be seized.

    Justice Inyang Ekwo made the order following an ex-parte motion filed and moved by Ibrahim Buba on behalf of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

    While granting the order, the Judge compelled the EFCC to publish the interim forfeiture order of the properties in a national daily within seven days.

    He furthered that anybody who wanted the forfeited properties should indicate within 14 days of the publication of the interim forfeiture order from the court.

    Should Nigerians delay their stick-throwing till later?

    The judge has adjourned the matter till December 5, 2022, for a report on the case if there is any objection from members of the public regarding the said properties.

    It is legally advisable that Nigerians give their thoughts a raincheck till the final judgement is given by the court.

    More days, more troubles

    The embattled Ekweremadu has been in the custody of the UK authorities with his wife since June 23 after getting arrested in the UK by London Met Police and charged with conspiracy to traffick a child to the United Kingdom to harvest his organs.

    Ekweremadu slumped into another water of controversy when his name appeared on the campaign list of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Nigerians did not allow it to slide with the uniform view that someone, like the former member of the red chamber, should not be on the campaign list until he washed clean from his issues. 

    But as it stands, the wait will have to be longer.

    This time around, the EFCC’s net has caught the biggest fish.

    What did the EFCC sieze?

    The interim forfeiture order covers Ekweremadu’s properties as follows; 10 properties in Enugu, three in the United States of America, two in the United Kingdom, one in Lagos, nine in Dubai, the United Emirates Republic and 15 located in the Federal Capital Territory.

    By the ruling, members of the public who had an interest in the properties covered by the interim forfeiture should, within 14 days of the newspaper publication, inform the court why the properties should be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

    The trend

    It has become an issue of concern that the custodians of our national fortunes have overstretched the opportunity.

    Most of Nigeria’s political officeholders have had scores to settle with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC). 

    As a nation and a people, we are still waiting for the time that we will have leaders who will leave office as clean as they got in. 

    Thumbs up to the EFCC

    On more than one occasion, Nigerians expressed dissatisfaction with the anti-corruption agency.

    Their grouse was the agency’s inability to do its job diligently. 

    But in the case of the former Deputy Senate President, it is a job well done.

    Is Ekweremadu a patriot?

    In a sane society, merely getting one in a messy web as tthis discredits one's patriot status.

    It is hard to call the former deputy president of the senate a patriot if he does not get out of this. 

    However, the fact that he was found wanting is a bruise on his true patriotism. 
     

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