The Senate has begun an investigation into the alleged plot by some members to sack the President, Bukola Saraki and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and other leaders of the chamber.
Raising the alarm through a point of order at the plenary on Wednesday, Senator Obinna Ogba (PDP, Ebonyi-Central) alleged that the group of aggrieved senators was also mobilising civil society and trade groups to protest against Saraki’s leadership.
“I rise to inform this Senate of a plan to destabilise it, including the senate leadership, by organising demonstrations towards which money has been exchanging hands. I believe that all of us are all leaders in this country, and everybody should avoid any action that would destabilise this country.
As we are here, if there is any issue bothering you, you have the opportunity to raise it and not to go outside the chambers to start planning civil organisations and market women to demonstrate against the leadership of the senate,” he said.
Senator Ogba who urged the Senate to investigate the allegation, said that the matter should not be treated with kid gloves.
“I want this matter to be investigated properly. I have evidence to show what I am saying. There is record of a telephone discussion between Senator Abdullahi Adamu and some other people which every other person can also print out,” he stated.
This is a very serious issue. When Senator Isah Misau raised it in January, we didn’t take it as anything, we must stand up to look into this.
“If we treat it with a wave of the hand, if it eventually happened, I would say I already said it.’’
The Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, also reiterated the need to preserve the sanctity of the legislature toward protecting the country’s democracy.
Senator Ekweremadu said the difference between military regime, autocratic regime or any other kind of repressive regime and the democratic regime, was the parliament.
“Whatever we do we must continue to preserve the sanctity of the parliament. So I want to stress again that any person interested in destabilising this country is not doing us any good. We have received this information from Ogba, so we will refer it to our committee on petitions to look at it and report back in two weeks,’’ Ekweremadu said.
Ekweremadu later referred the matter to the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.
