Pro-Lawan Senators Move To Impeach Saraki, 12 PDP Senators In Support

There were indications on Friday that members of the
Senate Unity Forum had started wooing senators loyal to
the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki.
Saturday PUNCH reliably gathered that the move was part
of fresh efforts to change the leadership of the Senate.
The group comprises senators, who were opposed to the
emergence of Saraki as senate president.
It was learnt that the SUF members, who contacted the
pro-Saraki senators, hinged their argument on the
ongoing trial of the Senate President at the Code of
Conduct Tribunal.
It was gathered that the group might have succeeded in
securing the support of 12 pro-Saraki senators, mainly the
Peoples Democratic Party members.
Investigations showed that the anti-Saraki group sought
the support of the senate president’s loyalists because it
had become obvious that the senate president could not be
removed without the support of some senators that were
sympathetic to him.
At the inauguration of the Senate on June 6, 57 out of
109 senators were reported to have voted for Saraki.
However, members of the SUF, who were supporting
Senator Ahmed Lawan were at a meeting with the party
leaders when the election was held.
Investigations revealed that some of the senators who
supported Lawan’s bid had allegedly met with some All
Progressives Congress leaders on the need to remove
Saraki.
It was gathered that they started meeting with the
leaders shortly after the Senate went on recess.
Specifically, a member of the group, who spoke with our
correspondents on conditions of anonymity, explained that
series of meetings had been held with APC leaders like
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and Chief
Bisi Akande.
A member of the group from the South-West geopolitical
zone, who also craved anonymity, confirmed to one of our
correspondents that the SUF members had started
reaching out to their colleagues who had joined the camp
of Saraki.
He expressed optimism that the group would be able to
muster enough support from other senators to get the
required 73 members needed to oust the senate president.
He said, “We know that getting the required figure to
carry out an impeachment at the moment would be a
herculean task but honestly we hope to achieve it very
soon. Already there has been a serious move to get our
former party members who are with Saraki now back to
our camp.
“I can also confirm to you that we have the support of
about 12 Peoples Democratic Party senators who are ready
to support any move against Saraki. Don’t forget that
some ranking PDP senators are still aggrieved over the
emergence of freshers as their principal officers.”
Further checks by one of our correspondents also revealed
that some of the APC leaders who met with the SUF
members had asked the anti – Saraki senators to work on
some influential PDP senators who could get their
colleagues to support their course.
A source said, “I am not in Abuja now, we shall resume on
Monday. I don’t have specific information at the moment
but what I can assure you of is that our leaders have said
that it is fight to finish.
“We learnt that the like minds senators are already
working on some of their supporters in the PDP camp to
reject the ministerial list by refusing to screen them but
we are also ready for them. I won’t disclose our strategy
for now.”
One of our correspondents further learnt that the SUF
were also working on a political solution to execute its
agenda since it would be difficult for its members to
dangle financial inducements to their colleagues because
of the anti – corruption posture of the Buhari
administration.
One of them confided in one of our correspondents that
Saraki might want to save his face from the impending
embarrassment at the end of the CCT trial by opting to
step aside.
He said, “We know that he might want to give conditions
like a settlement of his CCT case out of court,
withdrawing of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
charges against his wife and an end to his former
manager’s trial for alleged fraud at the Société Générale
Bank. We could help him in this regard to have a soft
landing and avoid disgrace. “
Senate spokesperson, who is also a die-hard supporter of
Saraki, Senator Dino Melaye, did not pick his call when
contacted for comments on Thursday
Also efforts to get reaction of the SUF’s spokesperson,
Senator Kabiru Marafa, did not succeed as calls to his
mobile telephone did not go through.
Also some senators contacted across the two camps,
declined official comments but a PDP senator from the
South-South geopolitical zone, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said, “We are watching events as they unfold.
I won’t say more than that.”
The source explained off the record that since the trial of
the senate president centered on corrupt enrichment as a
public officer, the SUF would appeal to the conscience of
Nigerians and the international community to prevail on
Saraki to step aside and clear himself of the allegations
preferred against him by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Part of the strategy, the source added, would include
sponsoring of a motion by a member of the group to draw
the attention of the red chamber to the trial of Saraki
and plead with him to safe himself from unnecessary
distraction by stepping aside for adequate concentration
at the tribunal.
He said, “Nigerians should not see the on-going trial of
the senate president as a witch-hunt, rather, they should
rather try and find out whether it was true that he
included a multi – million dollar property he bought in 2006
as part of his assets as of 2003.
“We should stop playing politics with everything in this
country. The mantra of the President Muhammadu Buhari
administration is anti – corruption and it will not be proper
to have a morally deficient person presiding over the
affairs of the legislature being a critical arm of
government.
“The prosecution counsel had promised to shock Nigerians
with the revelations of witnesses who had testified against
the senate president at the CCT. The implication of this is
that all the charges were not fabricated or invented to
spite him. He should therefore go and face his trial. “
Attempts to get the reactions of the National Chairman
of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the party’s
National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed as well
as that of the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Ahmed
Tinubu, were unsuccessful.
The National Chairman of the party could not be reached
as calls to his mobile telephone indicated that it was
switched off.
Repeated calls to the mobile telephone numbers of
Mohammed and Tinubu’s Spokesperson, Mr. Sunday Dare,
were neither picked nor returned.
A response to text messages sent to them was still being
awaited as of the time of filing this report at 8:45pm.
A pro-Saraki senator confided in one of our
correspondents that the seat of the Senate President was
not threatened because the Code of Conduct Tribunal had
no jurisdiction to try Senator Bukola Saraki for any
criminal offence.
He said, “The idea that members of the SUF are reaching
out to pro-Saraki senators in the senate does not arise
because majority of the members of the upper chamber
had freely elected their presiding officers and would not
be in a hurry to remove them because of any politically
motivated trial by a tribunal which lacks jurisdiction to do
so.
“Nobody can impeach or arrest the Senate President, and
the lawyers are there to argue out the competence or
otherwise of the CCT to try the case preferred against
him. More than 80 senators had signed a document with
which they unanimously passed a vote of confidence on
their president.
“No senator had approached any of us on any issue of
impeachment because they know the answer already. They
cannot get 73 senators to impeach the Senate President.
They are playing games and we are also ready for them. “
Attempts to speak with Senators Dino Melaye, Eyinnaya
Abaribe, Hope Uzodinma, James Manager, Mao Ohuabunwa,
Ali Ndume, and Bala Ibn Na’Allah, to get their views on
the development failed as they neither picked their calls
not react to text messages sent to them.
The phone of the Special Adviser to the Senate President
on Media and Publicity, Alhaji Yusuph Olaniyonu, was also
switched off when one of our correspondents dialed his
number on Friday evening.