Senate leader differs with Abaribe on impeachment of president

The Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe), yesterday, protested a remark made by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia) during plenary advising the senate to impeach the president if he refuses to act.

Abaribe had while seconding a bill tagged, “An Act to Prescribe Punishment for Acts and Conducts that are Undemocratic by Elected Officials”, sponsored by the Deputy Senate Leader, Bala Ibn Na’Allah, said if the president refused to act, he should be impeached.

“When you choose in an election, you must be able to accept the consequence of that choice you have made. Nigerians chose APC, they must live with the consequence of that,” he said.

“Nobody can wake up now and tell us, like my friend wants to tell us, that some people are undemocratic…I think the problem of Ibn Na’Allah, our very good friend, is that the executive today refuse to act when they need to act for consequences of what the people do.

“The penalty is there in the constitution. If a president refuses to act, then impeach him; there is no other thing you need to do,” Abaribe said.

But Lawan interjected by raising a point of order, saying Abaribe had veered off completely from the subject matter and in a way cast aspersion on the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the president.

“I believe he should withdraw it (statement) and continue to remain on track,” he said.

Responding, Saraki said Abaribe had completely gone off the subject matter and cautioned him.

But Abaribe continued by saying, “Let me withdraw that of the president and say any governor that leaves his responsibility should be impeached.”

When Abaribe started talking about Tuesday’s press statement issued by a former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, on President Muhammadu Buhari, Saraki stopped him saying, “I will play the role of the leader and the senate president.”

Na’Allah had while leading the debate on the bill, described the draft law as “a sunset approach” to address the myriad of problems currently bedevilling the country’s political atmosphere.

“It is intended to provide the atmosphere that would promote and sustain our democratic development,” he said.