Anti-Saraki senators demand principal officers’ removal

BUKOLA SARAKI

Members of the Senate Unity Forum, on Wednesday, vowed to maintain their position on the list of senators submitted by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to be announced as principal officers, for peace to reign in the upper chamber.

Saraki had refused to read the list of four senators, Ahmad Lawan (Senate Leader); George Akume (Deputy Senate Leader); Dayo Adeyeye (Chief Whip);   and Abu Ibrahim (Deputy Chief Whip), who were nominated by the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

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Instead, Saraki read the list of three senators, Ali Ndume (Senate Leader); Bala Ibn Na’Allah (Deputy Senate Leader); and Francis Alimikhena (Deputy Chief Whip), a development which degenerated into a major crisis that attracted the intervention of the party.

The National Executive Committee of the party met last month and directed the APC Governors’ Forum to meet with the aggrieved parties with a view to finding a lasting solution to the leadership crisis rocking both chambers of the National Assembly.

While Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State was leading a sub-committee handling the crisis in the House of Representatives, the Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole’s committee was asked to make peace in the senate.

However, few days to the submission of the governors’ reports on the crisis, there are indications that the anti-Saraki senators might reject any peace deal that would counter the announcement of the party’s list of principal officers.

Spokesperson for the SUF, Senator Kabir Marafa, told our correspondent that his group would defend party discipline and its supremacy over all members of the APC in the upper chamber at all times.

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He also explained that the Saraki-led senate leadership went against both the party’s directive and the rule of ranking in the announcement of the principal officers who were elected by the caucuses of their geopolitical zones.

Specifically, Marafa said that the appointments of the Deputy Senate Leader and Deputy Chief Whip for instance, contravened Orders 1 and 3 (2).

He therefore asked them to vacate their seats first before any meaningful peace deal could be struck.

He said, “Our position has not changed. Those who were appointed as principal officers must vacate their seats first because their appointments contradicted the Senate rule and the position of the party which is supreme.”

Another member of the group, Senator Adesoji Akanbi (Oyo South), said apart from the fact that the principal officers must vacate their seats, the election of Saraki as senate president and Ike Ekweremadu as his deputy must equally be nullified for peace to reign.

He said, “We have interviewed about 30 senators who were in the 7th Senate and are currently in the 8th Senate and all of them said they did not ammend the Standing Rules that was used by the 7th Senate.

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“The implication of this is that the both Saraki and Ekweremadu are illegally occupying their positions because the document used for their elections was not properly ammended according to the law.”

However, a former President of the Senate, Ken Nnamani, has raised the alarm that the current crisis rocking both chambers of the National Assembly, if not immediately curtailed could linger throughout the tenure of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

Nnamani, who spoke with our correspondent in Abuja, also expressed the fears that the development could slow down drastically, the pace at which the Buhari government would have loved to tackle the various social and economic crises confronting the nation.

He therefore urged the leadership of the All Progressives Congress to stop interfering in the affairs of the National Assembly because it is a critical arm of government that is constitutionally empowered to make laws and ensure national stability.

He said, “There is a wall of difference between theory and practice. When we talk of democratic process and presidential democracy, we are talking about a bundle of processes that must follow due process.

“We must understand that the legislature is an arm of government. The political party is not an arm of government. It is true that political parties form government when they win election but once they have formed the government, It becomes the government of the federation.

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“You are governing those who belong to a party as well as those who don’t belong to a party and even those who are not dreaming of joining a political party. So the government is bigger than the political party that formed it.”