President Muhammadu Buhari meeting with Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara
After meeting behind closed door with President Muhammadu Buhari on
Monday, President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara told State House correspondents
that they reported the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to
the President over his handling of the case involving Senator Dino
Melaye and his disdain for the National Assembly.
The meeting was held inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja shortly
after Buhari returned from his weekend trip to his hometown, Daura in
Katsina State.
According to a Punch report, they also said the meeting which was
at the instance of the President discussed the issue of the 2018
Appropriation Bill still before the National Assembly, the recent
invasion of the Senate during which the mace was taken away and the
fallouts or Buhari’s recent visit to the United States of America during
which he met the US President, Donald Trump.
They, however, said the issue of the impeachment process being
contemplated in the National Assembly over Buhari’s approval for the
payment of $496m for fighter jets before he sought the approval of the
Federal lawmakers was not discussed at the meeting.
“We came on the invitation of Mr. President. He wanted to brief
us on his trip to the United States and also the issue of the budget.
“We also talked on the issue of concerns to us: the invasion of
the National Assembly, which he showed great concern and he said action
will be taken to investigate that,” Saraki said.
When asked when the budget will be ready, Saraki said,
“Hopefully, it should be laid this week. If it can be laid this week and
passed early next week. We are hoping it will be laid this week.”
Saraki said the President saw the invasion of the Senate as an
embarrassment to the country and promised that the incident would be
properly investigated because it was not just about the National
Assembly but about the country.
When asked what was being done to improve the relationship between
the executive and the legislature, Saraki said the National Assembly had
always been ready to support the Executive.
“Our being here was the initiative of Mr. President to brief us
on his visit to America and to engage in discussions and I think that
is a good sign.
“We, at the National Assembly, have always been ready to give
all our support to the executive and we will continue to work along
those lines.
“As I said, the presidential system that we operate, we
sometimes have the responsibility to check the excesses of the
executive. So, there will always be times we will disagree but by and
large, we will always work for the interest of Nigerians and always keep
on moving on,” he said.