Yesterday, amidst the lengthy debate about Senate plans at the Upper Chamber, Senator Joshua Dariye representing Plateau Central announced his decision to defect from the PDP to the APC.

The news of Senator Dariye’s decampment did not quite come as a shock to many as the man who is the former Plateau state governor is in the middle of an EFCC prosecution. The charges brought against him wrap around an alleged siphoning of Plateau state’s ecological funds worth N1.16 billion. The funds were originally allocated for land reclamation and flood channelisation works in the Bokkos area of the state.

Here’s a quick rundown of Senator Joshua Dariye’s corruption woes:

• Joshua Dariye was elected as governor of Plateau state under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 1999. He ran for office again in 2003, was reelected but got impeached in November 2006  on the basis of corruption. At the time, 8 out of the 24 state assembly members issued an impeachment notice against Dariye. Later on, a legislative panel was set up to try him and findings proved that the governor had been involved in money laundering.
• In the two years that led up to his impeachment, Dariye was in a very controversial financial scandal that had London’s Met Police investigating him. The shocking revelation of the events of that time (2004) were made in May this year by a now-retired British detective with the London Met, Peter Clark as Senator Dariye’s trial was revisited by the EFCC after 9 years.
• Peter Clark testified in Senator Dariye’s trial before the Federal High Court, Abuja where he made it known that the Met police, in 2004, searched Dariye’s hotel room and found cash worth up to £43,000, other currencies including the Euros, dollars, Scottish bank notes and a £7000 Mont Blanc pen. In that same month, £11,995 cash was found in one of his London flats. All of these are aside the nine bank accounts that were traced to his name and proofs of purchase of luxury items. Peter Clark also revealed at the trial that Senator Dariye was arrested based on all the findings but jumped bail and returned to Nigeria. He has avoided travelling to London since 2004 to avoid re-arrest.
• At the ongoing trial, it was equally revealed by the prosecuting counsel that Senator Dariye is at the centre of the diversion of state treasury funds running up to about N204 million. The money was diverted to a certain Ebenezer Retnan Ventures, a company linked to Dariye

At the House of Assembly on Thursday, Senator Joshua Dariye told the press that his defection to the ruling party is largely owing to the crisis rocking his former party at the national level. Many Nigerians have waved off this claim as spurious; the popular assumption is that Senator Dariye’s crosscarpeting is a ploy to avoid prosecution, and the possibility of that cannot ruled out. Here’s what some Nigerians think:

I Won't Be Surprise If By Monday The Corruption CHARGES Against Senator Joshua Dariye Are Dropped. He Has Joined The League Of Progressive

— #MrDan. (@Imodu67) September 23, 2016

Joshua Dariye leaves PDP for APC.
Tomorrow, he will join born again PDP politicians in APC to be shouting "PDP destroyed Nigeria". lmao ??

— Uche Jegbefume (@jaustinuche) September 22, 2016

As it is no longer news that President Buhari’s sworn battle against corruption is turning out to be a witchhunt against members of the opposition PDP, is it safe to conclude that Senator Joshua Dariye is “seeking asylum” in the APC? The EFCC will prove its questionable autonomy to Nigerians with the handling of this trial.

Tolu

Your pop culture/entertainment go-to. Music head. Wallflower. I do not like to write. On a mission to decipher covfefe.