Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, at the weekend denied sitting on defection letters allegedly written by the aggrieved All Progressives Congress (APC) senators who lost in the last primary elections, but it was learnt yesterday that they might support the opposition lawmakers to carry out impeachment proceedings against President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari had on June 28, met with the 22 affected senators and pledged to address their grievances because, in the event they leave, the ruling party might become the opposition in the Senate as the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would have more legislators.
Already, the ruling party had lost seven senators including Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano), Yahaya Abdullahi (Kebbi), Adamu Aliero (Kebbi), Dauda Jika (Bauchi), Ahmad Babba Kaita (Katsina), Lawal Yahaya Gumau (Bauchi) and Francis Alimikhena (Edo) to other political parties following the outcome of the party’s primaries.
At the moment, the APC has 61 senators, PDP 38, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) 3, Young Progressives Party (YPP) 2, Labour Party (LP) one, and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) occupies one seat in the red chamber.
The ruling party requires a 2/3 majority to control either of the chambers of the parliament.
Some of the lawmakers who attended the meeting held behind closed doors with Buhari were Frank Ibezim (Imo), Adamu Bulkachuwa (Bauchi), Hezekiah Dimka (Plateau), Kabiru Barkiya (Katsina), Yakubu Oseni (Kogi), Oriolowi Tolulope Odebiyi (Ogun) and Kola Balogun (Oyo).
Others were; Smart Adeyemi (Kogi), Yusuf A. Yusuf (Taraba), Yahaya Oloriegbe (Kwara), Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia (Jigawa), Adelere Adeyemi Oriolowo (Osun) and Lawali Hassan Anka (Zamfara).
A month after the meeting, our Correspondent learnt that the President had yet to address these grievances and they were allegedly planning massive defections on the floor of the Senate.
However, they could not act before the National Assembly adjourned till September 20.
Meanwhile, two of the affected lawmakers, Senators Adelere Oriolowo and Bello Mandiya, have dissociated themselves from any plot to join the opposition lawmakers to impeach the President.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation, Senator Danladi Sankara, also dissociated himself from an alleged plot by some senators to impeach the Senate President, Lawan, for the eventual impeachment proceedings against President Buhari.
Sankara, who represents Jigawa North-West Senatorial District in the upper legislative chamber, refuted claims by certain online news publications linking him to the plot by some senators to impeach the Senate President
He said at no time was he consulted or co-opted into such a plan by the eleven other Senators alleged to be masterminding the plot, adding, “It is just the figment of the imagination of the online publications and the others, who are linking me to such a move.
“I was present throughout plenary sessions of last Tuesday and Wednesday, nobody approached me or sought my consent to join any move to impeach the Senate President or President Muhammadu Buhari.”
He pointed out that what was required at this time was the maturity and understanding of leaders and people to ensure that Nigeria overcome the challenges of insecurity and economic downturn.
Sankara said, “It is very important for leaders to explore workable methods to address the issues of insecurity.
“It is not proper for us to further heat up the polity when we should put heads together to explore workable solutions to the issues of the economy and insecurity. It is a collective responsibility on the part of the leaders and the people.”
The Special Adviser to the President of the Senate on Media and Publicity, Ola Awoniyi, in a statement on Saturday confirmed that his boss was not sitting on the letters of defection allegedly written by the aggrieved APC senators.
An online publication reported on Thursday that Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, was deliberately frustrating the defection of 12 APC senators by not reading their defection letters on the floor of the red chamber.
Part of Awoniyi’s statement released on Saturday evening read, “We have seen a story on social media and some online newspapers purporting that the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, is sitting on letters from some Senators allegedly intimating him of their defections from the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The story insinuated that Lawan is sitting on the purported letters to protect his position as the President of the Senate.
“We hereby state categorically that the story is an utter falsehood as there is no such letter before the Senate President.
“The report mentioned only Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa as one of the affected Senators. The purveyors of the syndicated lies had not even bothered to confirm from the Distinguished Senator if and when he submitted any such letter to the Senate President.
“It is public knowledge that the Senate President has always promptly read out at plenaries letters by Senators defecting from one party to another.
“The Senate President is sufficiently knowledgeable about the rules and workings of the Senate and has been discharging his responsibilities within the ambit of those rules. That is why he has continued to enjoy the confidence and full cooperation of his fellow Distinguished Senators irrespective of party affiliations.
“Some vested interests want to magnify challenges to sow seeds of discord in Parliament in promotion of their selfish agenda. We wish to reiterate that the Senate President is not withholding or sitting on any letter of whatever content from any of his Distinguished Senator colleagues.
“Therefore, any story purporting such exists only in the imagination of the mischief-makers circulating it.”
Similarly, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, said it was difficult to determine the positions of the aggrieved senators at the moment even when they had not defected.
He said, “Senators come to the floor of the senate, you know to do that movement of one party to another across the parties and that one again a consequent of their letter of resignation from their former party to the new party and while it is read, you know they are moved from one place to the other.
“You can never know the whole idea really because today a senator can say he is moving from one party to another, but I think what has hindered them is the warning from Senator Abdullahi their national chairman and some promises were made regarding their tickets back to the Senate.
“I don’t know where they (aggrieved senators) are now, I can’t put my finger on the state where they are at present.
“Certainly it will be good for the PDP if the 12 can make a majority for us, and with the present number, you’ll need to have 55 members before you can say you’re in the majority or less the number goes above half of the number of the senators in the senate if not you cannot claims majority.
“If the 12 senators decamp to PDP, will it change the game in the National Assembly and the political game of the country?
“A Senator hold one-third of a state and if they move, look at it now the whole of Kogi, Bauchi, Adamawa is almost gone, so now those areas will now be more secured for the PDP and it will generally affect positive change for the general election of next year in favour of the PDP and the national assembly, it only means the executive will no longer be able to get anything he gets on a platter of gold”
Also, the Senator representing Ondo South Senatorial District, Nicholas Tofowomo, said Buhari had failed Nigerians in the area of security because no one is safe anywhere.
He said, “Look at us in the National Assembly now. We are leaving in seven months and we are now demonstrating. Does it make sense?
“I am part of them, I have to join them. If you look at it genuinely, we should have done this two years ago. It is very sad. In Abuja now, everybody is hiding. If you go to malls now, they are just like ghost towns. Even the National Assembly, everywhere is dry.
“Everybody has run away. Even the APC senators are angry. You know we have a closed session on Thursday. The majority of those in the session is for Buhari to be impeached, including members of the APC.
“I suggested that Buhari should be summoned to the National Assembly to come and give an account of the Nigeria Security and if he doesn’t come, we should impeach him.
“This is what we should have done two years ago but Buhari has already pocketed the senate. If not, his ministry would not be saying that against us.”
Tofowomo also suggested that one of the ways to improve the internal security system was by strengthening the police, adding that the Nigerian police are poor. – ThisNigeria.
