The South-East Caucus of the National Assembly has expressed support for the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and absolved him of any culpability in the alleged amendments made to the Senate Rules 2015
The caucus took the stand in a communiqué issued after they rose from a meeting in Abuja on Thursday night.
The lawmakers in the statement by the chairman of their caucus, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, said they “noted with a deep sense of concern the orchestrated attempts to malign and undermine the highly esteemed person and office of the deputy president of the Senate.”
They alleged that some politicians “have gone as far as fabricating baseless allegations against the deputy president of the Senate to achieve narrow political interests over and above the larger interest of peace and equity in the Senate.”
The South-East caucus in the National Assembly said it had therefore resolved to stand resolutely behind Ekweremadu and vowed not to condone any further attempts to undermine him in that capacity.
They also said that such plots against Ekweremadu would be viewed as an attack on democracy, good governance, independence of the legislature and the political interest of the nation and the South-East, in particular.
The communiqué read in part, “The National Assembly has its own internal mechanism for settling internal disputes as prescribed by Section 60 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
“We wish to state that nobody outside the National Assembly can unseat Senator Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy President of the Senate; and we in the National Assembly are satisfied that he is a round peg in a round hole in the office.
“We do hereby pass a vote of total and irrevocable confidence on His Excellency, Distinguished Senator Ike Ekweremadu as the Deputy President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
