Despite his current travails, the people of Kwara State, have continued to express their support for the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki.

The support is across political divide, LEADERSHIP Sunday observed.

Saraki, a two-term governor of the state is currently facing charges of false assets declaration at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), sitting in Abuja.

As the trial progresses, various organisations and individuals have expressed support and solidarity for the Senate president, among them, Concerned Citizens on CCT, the Nigeria Need Positive Change Group(NNPCG), the Congress of Nigeria’s Political Parties (CNPP), Inter Party Advisory Council( IPAC), the state’s chapter of the All Progressives Congress(APC) and its Kwara central zone, leaders of thought in the north-central and the state secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Rex Olawoye.

In the build up to the commencement of Saraki’s trial at the CCT last Tuesday, hundreds of youths and women in Ilorin, the state capital, took to the streets, expressing solidarity with the Senate president.

The state chairman of the APC, Alhaji Ishola Balogun-Fulani while addressing the protesters lamented that from what had transpired so far at the tribunal, there was no need guessing that Saraki’s trial was a political set-up.

Leader of the protesters, Mr. Yinka Dalas, asked the APC leaders to pass the message of the youths and women to the party’s hierarchy in Abuja, expressing disgust that Saraki was being persecuted after he had worked to help the party.

He added, “we as youths and women we are concerned and that is why we have come here today. Senate President Bukola Saraki ongoing trial at the CCT is politically-motivated. This is a man that single-handedly exposed the fuel subsidy’s scam. We are protesting in his support today and we want APC leadership in the state to take our case to the appropriate quarters,” they said.

The NNPCG in a statement by its Secretary, Mr Jide Jokotade, re-echoed its stand that the CCT should re-arraign Chief Bola Tinubu to answer charges preferred against him “because it is the same tribunal and the same Judge that has delivered different rulings in similar matters.”

Also, the state chapter of the APC alleged the hijack of CCT by those it described as desperate politicians.

The party warned that the judiciary may throw the country into needless chaos and pandemonium.

The APC made the allegation in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Sulyman Buhari.

It said President Muhammadu Buhari “should not be seen to be watching helplessly when politicians hijack a crucial arm of the government to carry out political vendetta against perceived political adversaries”.

”The CCT has been hijacked by politicians and we are concerned that the judiciary is about to throw our beloved country into avoidable chaos and pandemonium.”

The CNPP and IPAC also lent their voices to the calls for the quashing of the trial of the Senate President CCT.

The two groups made their positions known in separate statements issued in Ilorin.

The groups held that the trial of Saraki before the CCT was borne out of political vendetta and therefore not a fight against corruption as the initiators of the trial wanted the public to believe.

The IPAC’s statement was signed by the Alhaji Adebayo Lawal (Chairman) and Hon Dave Ifabiyi (Secretary) while that of CNPP was signed by its Secretary, Prince Olufemi Adeleke .

IPAC in its statement noted that “what is happening in the political arena as far as the senate presidency is concerned is nothing short of tyrannical rule of one strong pillar of the ruling party APC who only wants his men in all strategic positions of government and party.

“Any democratic dispensation that practices such is nothing short of dictatorship and nepotism.”

The CNPP in its own statement stated that “We therefore categorically say no to the continued castigation and victimisation of the person of the senate president on those trump up allegations if all Nigerians would not continue to view it as a ploy hatched by some political heavy-weights in the APC to taint the dazzling image of Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki and thus take away his legitimate claim to the highly coveted seat of the number three citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The publicity secretary of the PDP in the state, Chief Rex Olawoye, said that his support for Saraki against his continued trial at the CCT should be viewed as a political gain for the people of the state.

Olawoye, who said he remains an active member of the PDP opined that politics should be seen as a beneficial game “when the benefits are overtly seen” and an ideology when there is a need “to be rigid”.

The PDP spokesman had declared his support for Saraki against his trial by the CCT, citing the alleged stance of the PDP on the issue at the national level.

Olawoye reminisced on how he had worked with Saraki’s father (late Olusola Saraki) and how he was allegedly influential to the emergence of Saraki as the governor of Kwara some 13 years ago, adding that “even though our political views no longer tally today, I remember how I risked my life for him when the going was rough against the then incumbent Governor (late Mohammed Lawal). I will therefore not want the house we jointly build to collapse.”

Leaders of thought in the north- central also at a press conference in Ilorin called for the immediate dismissal of the on-going trial of Saraki at the CCT.

The spokesman of the group, Senator Ahmed Mohammed on behalf of the people of north central zone called on President Buhari not to be indifferent to the injustice and abuse of legal system in the country as being witnessed in Saraki’s trial.

He said the recent pronouncement by eminent jurists on the illegality of the CCT and that it lacks the power to prosecute Saraki was enough to prompt presidential action on the “impunity” of Justice Danladi.

Justifying their call for presidential intervention, Mohammed noted that Saraki did not only deliver Kwara state 100 per cent to APC in the last general elections, he was a pillar in the North central.

“Unfortunately at this moment he is being condemned, persecuted and vilified by the party he helped to build and win.

“If we review his leadership at the Senate and chairmanship of the National Assembly in the last nine months, is there anyone who has not seen the high capacity demonstrated by Dr Bukola Saraki in the conduct of business at the upper house of the National Assembly?” he added.