Senate vs Presidency: Mark visits Aso Rock
Aformer president of the Senate, Senator David Mark, yesterday visited President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Both met behind closed-doors inside the president’s office for 45 minutes.
Mark, who arrived the State House alone, was led into Buhari’s office by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang.
He later left the Presidential Villa without speaking to correspondents.
It was the first time Mark, a two-term senate president, visited Buhari since the latter assumed office on May 29, 2015.
There was no official statement on what transpired at the meeting.
Sources however hinted that the visit may be connected to the rift between the senate and the presidency.
It was also gathered that Mark sought Buhari’s intervention on the continued killings in Benue State. Scores were recently killed when gunmen invaded Logo, Turan, Mbagber, Yonov, Varser, Anyin and Tombo and in Logo and Ukum LGAs of the state despite assurances of government intervention.
Mark had in a statement last Wednesday by his media aide Paul Mumeh, said: “Enough of the bloodbath, enough of this massacre. This war is senseless and needless...It is time the federal government stepped in to salvage this situation. It has become too worrisome and truly intolerable.”
Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari was also at the Presidential Villa yesterday to thank Buhari for commissioning some projects in the state last week, according to a source.
The president later met with another former president of the Senate, Ken Nnamani and the governor of Katsina State, Aminu Bello Masari.
Governor Masari was accompanied by a former president of the Senate, Senator Nnamani.