Posted on: 07:29 Sat, 25 Jun 2016



There are indications that the
National Assembly is on the war
path with President Muhammadu
Buhari over the prosecution of the
Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki,
and his deputy, Senator Ike
Ekweremadu, for alleged forgery of
the Senate Standing Rules 2015.

According to Punch, although some
of the legislators were
uncomfortable with the anti-
corruption war of the President, the
relationship between the two arms
of government came to a head with
the senate forgery rules suit filed
by the Federal Government.
It was learnt that many National
Assembly members had concluded
plans to frustrate any request by
the President because of his anti-
graft war.

Besides the senate president, who is
standing trial at the Code of
Conduct Tribunal, eight senators,
including the Chairman of the
Senate Committee on
Appropriation, Senator Danjuma
Goje, and a former Plateau State
Governor, Senator Joshua Dariye,
are being prosecuted for corruption
related offences.

Goje is standing trial at a Federal
High Court, Jos, for allegedly
awarding contract for the purchase
of N1bn dictionaries without due
process, while Dariye is being
prosecuted by the EFCC on a 23-
count charge bordering on money
laundering and diversion of the
state’s ecological fund.

It was gathered that among the
plans of the anti-Buhari senators,
consisting of members of the
Peoples Democratic Party caucus
and their others colleagues in the
All Progressives Congress
sympathetic to Saraki, was to delay
approval for Buhari’s
appointments.

Investigations by Punch showed
that those who could be affected by
the hard stand of the National
Assembly included the Acting
Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim
Magu, whose appointment had not
been confirmed by the Senate.

Others in this category, it was
learnt, included ambassadors, who
would mainly be politicians. An
APC senator, who is sympathetic to
Saraki, confided in Punch that the
National Assembly would be strict
in its oversight functions.

He said, “As part of the measures to
reveal to Nigerians that there is
corruption in the executive too, we
will be strict in screening
appointees and in our oversight
functions.”

Following the frosty relationship, it
was learnt that the lawmakers had
vowed to ensure that the principle
of separation of powers was
enforced between the two arms of
government.

One of the Like Mind senators, who
preferred anonymity, alleged that
the Presidency, in collaboration
with some APC leaders, had made
up their minds to get Saraki and
Ekweremadu out at all costs.

Like Mind senators, consisting of
the PDP members and their
colleagues that are supporting
Saraki, were instrumental to his
emergence as senate president last
year.

The senator, who spoke with Punch,
said, “When the Presidency and
some of these party leaders
discovered that they could not
remove Saraki and Ekweremadu on
the floor of the chamber, they are
now trying to carry out their
agenda using the court.

“Their intention is to ensure that
both Saraki and Ekweremadu are
arraigned in court on Monday and
make sure they are remanded in
prison afterwards so that we would
be forced to change our
leadership.”

The senator from the North Central
geopolitical zone vowed that all
legal and constitutional means
would be explored by his colleagues
to ensure that the Presidency was
paid back in its coin.

Reacting, the Special Adviser to the
President on Media and Publicity,
Femi Adesina, said:

“The anti-corruption war will not
be slowed down for any reason
whatsoever. Let me refer you to
what the President said on
Wednesday while addressing
Presidency staffers. The war on
corruption will never be slowed
down.”