Lawan, Akume Drop Grievances, Accept Committee Chairmanships

Leaders of Senate Unity Forum, Senators Ahmad Lawan and George Akume, who had been aggrieved over the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as Senate President on June 9, appear to have finally dropped their grievances as they both accepted their appointments as committee chairmen yesterday.

Both Lawan and Akume lost their bids to emerge as Senate President and Deputy Senate president respectively on June 9 as Saraki and Senator Ike Ekweremadu emerged as president and deputy respectively at the inauguration of the Senate on June 9 when Lawan and Akume along with their supporters were marooned on International Conference Centre (ICC) waiting for President Muhammadu Buhari.

Since then, the All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus in the Senate had been factionalised with Lawan, a hitherto vocal senator, refusing to make any contribution at the plenary. Both men had been indifferent to the leadership of Saraki since inception.

However, there was a major shift in the disposition of the two senators to Saraki’s leadership yesterday as both Lawan and Akume accepted their nominations by Saraki as chairmen of the Committee on Defence and Committee on Army respectively. Consequently, they were inaugurated along with their respective committees.

However, Lawan, Akume, Senators Barnabas Gemade, Abu Ibrahim and other prominent members of the Unity Forum, who were installed as committee chairmen, declined to comment on their appointments.

In his response, Lawan simply said: “You know I don’t talk to the press these days. I am on sabbatical.” He walked away as he was talking.

In his address, Saraki said the Senate had put dynamic mechanism in place to empower the committees to efficiently and independently discharge their responsibilities.

He also promised that necessary resources would be made available to cover relevant activities of the committees in line with approved guidelines.

However, THISDAY reliably learnt last night that the decision of leaders of Unity Forum to accept chairmanships of the committees was the offshoot of a three-hour meeting of the group in the office of Gemade. Sixteen senators were said to have attended the meeting.

Members of the forum did not join the plenary until 1p.m. yesterday when the meeting was concluded.

A source told THISDAY that Marafa had in the meeting advised members to reject their appointments as committee chairmen but the suggestion was rejected by those who said it was their rights to take it.

The source said: “The suggestion of Marafa was rejected by those who accused him of always canvassing extreme positions. Akume asked him why they should not accept their rights to head committees. He said Marafa could equally have suggested that they should not go to the Senate again.”