Saraki on Hot Seat
He Must Appear Before Investigators – Police PSG to Push For Senate President’s Resignation We’re Unanimous on Threat to Impeach Buhari – Saraki Camp
The Nigeria Police will not cancel an invitation to Senate President Bukola Saraki to appear before investigators handling Offa armed robbery case in spite of the written explanation Saraki submitted to the police Thursday, Daily Trust on Sunday gathered.
This is even as senators and House of Reps members under the auspices of Parliamentary Support Group (PSG) vowed to push the Senate President to step down from his position and face the allegations hanging over his head.
Coming two days after Saraki’s response to a letter by the police on their investigation into the Offa robbery, the development may spark a fresh round of controversy around the Number Three citizen.
Saraki has been having a war of words with the police since they invited him for interrogation after suspects arrested over the Offa robbery that claimed the lives of nine policemen and 33 others leveled allegations against him. He denied the allegations, describing it as baseless, while accusing the police IG of plotting to embarrass him over a Senate’s invitation to the latter. The police and the Senate were locked in a bitter quarrel after the police boss turned down senators’ invitation and sent a subordinate to represent him.
The police later denied a claim by Saraki that he would no longer appear in person, but would send a written statement to the force.
But Saraki, on Thursday, announced that he had transmitted a written response to the police. He wrote on his Twitter handle @ bukolasaraki: “In line with their request, earlier today, the Police received my response to their letter on the investigation into the Offa robbery case.”
Speaking to Daily Trust on Sunday, a senior police officer disclosed that the force was sticking to its earlier request to Saraki to present himself for questioning. The officer, who does not want to be quoted, said the position of the police had not changed about the manner to conduct the investigation.
“The police still stand by their position as announced by the Force Public Relations Officer, to the effect that the Senate President is invited in line with the ongoing investigation on the Offa armed robbery case,” he said.
Jimoh Moshood, the police spokesperson, on Wednesday, insisted that Saraki must appear in person for the investigation, saying investigators were still expecting the Senate President to report to the Force Intelligence Response Team office at Guzape, Abuja, to explain his links to the five gang leaders involved in the robbery.
“The invitation was never withdrawn. I read to you (journalists) that the Senate President was being invited to come and answer to the allegations levelled against him by the five gang leaders here. We are expecting him in person. As I said earlier on, the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, has a case to answer,” he said. ‘Honour NASS and step down’ Daily Trust on Sunday also gathered that Senators and Reps under the PSG would insist that Saraki resigns as Senate President to pave way for unfettered investigation.
The lawmakers would rely on precedents that were set in earlier cases affecting the leadership of the National Assembly, where the Senate President or the Speaker of the House of Representatives undergoing investigation would
step down.
The fresh move by members of the PSG, it was learnt, was a response to a threat of impeachment to President Muhammadu Buhari by a joint executive session of the National Assembly.
Also, at the joint session on Tuesday, the federal lawmakers threatened to invoke their constitutional powers if the president failed to comply with 12 resolutions they passed, requesting him to give marching orders to security agencies to curtail killings of Nigerians, stop harassment of lawmakers by the executive, among others.
In a swift reaction to the resolutions, the PSG through Abdulmumin Jibrin, warned that the entire National Assembly should not be dragged into Saraki’s personal case. The response did not go down with other lawmakers as Jibrin was on Wednesday dragged before to the Ethics Committee of the House of Representatives.
But a leader in the PSG told Daily Trust on Sunday yesterday that the group wants Saraki to step down as Senate President and face his case with the police.
The ranking lawmaker said Saraki should honour the Senate, the legislature and the entire country by resigning his position, saying the legislature’s name has been dragged through the mud.
Citing instances, the lawmaker, who doesn’t want to be named, said that previously, when four presiding officers were indicted at different times, they stepped down for probe.
“One, when Adolphus Wabara was accused of collecting bribe when he was the Senate President, he was forced to step down, he went and cleared his name,” he said.
He also recalled how Evan Enwerem, who was accused of certificate forgery, was forced to step down, but the case did not go to court.
“Similarly, when Salisu Buhari was enmeshed in certificate forgery (scandal), his case went to court but he was later pardoned. Again, when Patricia Etteh was accused of inflating contract, she stepped down and at the end of the day, she wasn’t found wanting. So let Saraki follow the path of honour and do the same thing rather than drag the whole Senate and even the National Assembly into his personal problem,” he said.
Making a reference to allegations against Senator Ali Ndume of having links with Boko Haram, he said rather than looking for a political solution, Saraki should clear his name for posterity.
“Look at Ndume’s case when he was accused of sponsoring Boko Haram during the last administration, we were all with him but we asked him to go and clear his name. After six years, he was cleared,” he said.
The lawmaker from the North, while describing the threat to impeach Buhari as empty, said its promoters had failed woefully.
“It is just an empty threat because they know they cannot succeed. They wanted to rattle the Presidency to do their bidding on Saraki’s case. They are frustrated because it didn’t work. You know they first gave ultimatum and when they failed, they came up with the impeachment threat,” he said.
Another Senator said “anything could happen in the coming days to restore the dignity of the Senate.”
Asked to explain what he meant by that statement, the senator said: “Once the police duly establish criminal case against him and drag him to court, he would have no option but to leave the exalted seat of the Senate President.”
The ranking senator said the lawmakers would force Saraki out if he refused to tow the path of honour should a criminal charge be brought against him.
“The ongoing case is completely different from the one at the Code of Conduct Tribunal. If he refuses to give way, we will impeach him to save the sanctity of the Senate. The integrity of the Senate is under serious trial, nobody sees us as leaders with conscience anymore,” he said.
Backing his colleagues, another senator said it would be out of place for the upper legislative chamber to be led by someone undergoing a criminal trial.
“It is unthinkable for someone to be leading the legislature while facing trials. We are making mockery of our democracy. They initially threw the issue of impeaching President Buhari and they saw the backslash, the anger exhibited by Nigerians. This time around, we will do our own, we wo go for Saraki and see how the reaction would be, whether Nigerians would support us or not,” he said.
We’re unanimous on Buhari’s impeachment - Saraki’s camp
A vocal member of Saraki’s camp told Daily Trust on Sunday yesterday that if President Buhari failed to respect their Tuesday resolutions they would impeach him.
The lawmaker said in a phone interview: “We are unanimous that if the president fails to implement our resolutions, he should be removed. In fact, at the executive session, someone suggested that we should fix a timeframe for the implementation, but we did not buy the idea.
“I can tell you now that if he fails to implement it, he would be removed. His removal won’t be difficult because many of us are aggrieved and have nothing to lose again. The governors have already allocated our seats to their cronies. You are dealing with people who have nothing to lose. If these things do not stop, he would be removed. At the executive session, nobody spoke in the support of the president,” he said.
The lawmaker faulted the claim that the National Assembly was being dragged into Saraki’s personal issue.
“The crux of the matter is that the executive want to tame the Senate President, and the only way they feel they can achieve this is to use police and court. The PSG members were mobilised, but they couldn’t make any impact. They want to use the criminal case to paint him (Saraki) red. The government lacked the strategy. The APC senators and reps are aggrieved and they won’t dance to the tone of the executive.
“The PDP lawmakers cannot do it. It became impossible for any action. They want to destabilise him with all these allegations so that he can lose track, but unfortunately, it is making him more relevant and popular. The PSG cannot do it, but the party (APC) was not in any way supporting them,” he said.
Insisting that nothing would shake Saraki, the lawmaker said the PSG had nothing to lure their colleagues with, whether in terms of return ticket or any other offer.
“You can’t get everything for nothing. If you look at the strategy used by Obasanjo to remove Wabara and co, there were inducements. The government is not ready to induce anybody, and it is not also ready to offer some sort of bargain. What they want to do is to use these cases to instigate the senators to remove Saraki. But this won’t work. If they push him to the wall, frankly speaking, he possesses the capacity to mobilise for the removal of the president.
“Had it been that it was only Saraki that is aggrieved, the issue may be a different ballgame, but now, Dogara is more aggrieved than the Senate President. They have edged him out in the party, including at his ward. Dogara does not have anybody in the executive of his ward, not to talk of local government and even at state level. Don’t forget, he is the Number Four citizen,” he said.
When contacted for comment, the Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, declined comment, saying he was abroad.
Buhari: What Senators, Reps discussed at closed session
A lawmaker who attended the joint closed-door session of the two chambers on Tuesday told Daily Trust on Sunday that some of the major issues discussed at the meeting had to do with the persecution of National Assembly members.
The lawmaker said they became suspicious at the meeting when some legislators who ought to have spoken kept mum.
“There were a number of issues that were discussed, but the major ones had to do with the withdrawal of security men attached to the presiding officers.
“Suddenly, they withdrew about half of the DSS men attached to both the Senate President and the Speaker. For example, the Senate President had 22 of them, but they are now 12, while the speaker had about 20 but they are now 8 or 10.
“We consider the matter very seriously because these are number 3 and 4 citizens of this country.
“Again, the issue of persecution of individual lawmakers was discussed seriously. We have the case of Dino, Shehu Sani, Ubale Shittu and the Senate President himself.
“Both senators and members of the House lamented how the security agencies are used to harass and intimidate members of the National Assembly,” the lawmaker, who did not want to be named said.
The lawmaker added that another major issue discussed was the attempt by the executive arm to use government agencies to implicate members of the National Assembly on corruption matters.
“We are fully aware of how they plan to use agencies against us on
corruption issues. Lawmakers also lamented the security situation in Benue, Zamfara, Taraba, Kaduna and other states,” he said.
However, another lawmaker said the joint executive session was about Saraki, but they hid under the guise of other pressing issues.
“I wasn’t around when the joint closed-door session took place, but I can assure you that the whole thing was centered on an individual - Saraki.
“Before that day, some of us had called for a joint executive session on several occasions over the killing of Nigerians, but nobody listened. All of a sudden, because a certain National Assembly leader is under probe, it becomes an institutional issue that the whole of the legislature was dragged in.
“Some of us were not comfortable with the position they took. In fact, it was like an ambush because it was done when most members, especially the Muslims among us, went on Umrah.”
The PSG position is coming 24 hours after a coalition of some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the country asked Saraki to resign.
The group, under the aegis of Coalition of Civil Society for Good Governance and Democracy (CCSGGD), insisted that it was only honourable for the Senate President to step aside to clear his name.
The convener of the group, Alhaji Adamu Kabiru, who led other groups, including labour unions, trade unions and Joint Action Committee (JAC), at a rally in Abuja on Friday, urged members of the 8th Senate to do the needful by immediately impeaching Saraki as Senate President if he failed to resign.