Bukola Saraki
75-days after, members of the National Assembly will resume today from their annual recess, Vanguard reports.
In the Senate, the session may be stormy on account of plots to
remove Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu,
just as members of both parties traded words over the issue yesterday.
While the PDP warned their APC colleagues not to beat the drums of
war, some APC senators vowed that the Senate President will be removed
at the slightest opportunity.
There are also the issues of approval of funds for the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct the 2019 elections;
amendments to the electoral bill; state and community police among other
burning and controversial issues to be tackled.
Both chambers of the National Assembly went on recess on Tuesday,
July 25, instead of Thursday July 27 on a controversial note, after what
was considered a botched attempt to remove Saraki and Ekweremadu.
The lawmakers could not resume on September 25. The resumption was
postponed to today, October, 9 via a statement by the Clerk to the
National Assembly, Mohammed Sani-Omolori. No specific reason was given
for the extension, even though the parties were holding their primaries
then.
PDP senators vow to resist attempts to remove Saraki
Indeed, PDP Senate Caucus, yesterday, said that it was prepared for
a battle with APC senators who are bent on using forceful means to
remove Senate President Saraki and Deputy Senate President Ekweremadu.
Taking a swipe at the Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan, the PDP
senators warned him against any plan to cause tension and problem in the
Senate, stressing that the leadership of the Senate is not by party
affiliation but through an election by all the senators.
Speaking with Vanguard yesterday, the incoming Senate Minority
Leader, Senator Biodun Olujimi, PDP, Ekiti South said that Lawan as a
principal officer and one of the oldest lawmakers in the present
dispensation should be conversant with the workings of the National
Assembly and the Senate in particular with regard to what it takes to
remove presiding officers.
Olujimi who noted that the Senators were returning to face their
duties more squarely, however prayed that no one distracts them from
working, adding that the unity of the Senate is more important than
anybody’s inordinate ambition.
Senator Olujimi said: “The Senate leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan
should not cause tension and problem in the Senate. He should not
promise the APC what he cannot deliver, Nigerians should hold him
responsible if the Senate is unable to sit because the leadership of the
Senate is not by party affiliation, it is through an election among all
the Senators.
“Lawan should be reminded that the election of the present
Presiding officers of the Senate was done even when he was not present.
He should be reminded that responsible senators who attended the
inauguration of the Senate as announced by President Buhari elected the
Presiding officers and that Ahmad Lawan as the Senate leader should be
conversant with the procedure for the removal of presiding officers and
for the avoidance of doubt, the Senate is solidly behind the presiding
offers and we will resist any attempt that will offset the calm
situation in the Senate.
“The Senate leader should please note that we are returning to
handle all outstanding issues and he should be held responsible if we
are not able to accomplish them. We ask him as one of the Principal
officers of the Senate to refrain from beating drums of war that will
not do anyone any good.
“We have resolved as Senators of the Federal Republic to face
our duties squarely and pray that no one distracts us. The unity of the
Senate is more important than anybody’s inordinate ambition.”
We’ll remove Saraki at the slightest opportunity – Omo-Agege
However, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who recently defected to the APC
from the Labour Party, said yesterday that APC senators would take the
first opportunity open to them to remove Saraki as Senate President.
“Our demand has not changed, in fact, that demand has been
accentuated by the directive of the APC national leadership,” Omo-Agege
representing Delta Central Senatorial District told NAN.
“We have all been enjoined as APC senators at a slightest
opportunity to remove Saraki and once we are provided with that
slightest opportunity, we will remove him and he knows that,” he said.
According to him, the moment Saraki left the APC to join the
minority PDP, he lost the right, legal and moral, to occupy the office
of the Senate President.
“Absolutely, he knows he cannot be; we are not shying away from
that. Our position has always been consistent. This is not new, neither
is it news. We have made that clear, very clearly in the past.”