Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
News  

APC restates move to sanction Saraki, Dogara

By Adamu Abuh, Abuja
11 June 2015   |   11:07 pm
APC may still sanction the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and their band of defiant supporters in the National Assembly...
Saraki

Senator Bukola Saraki(left) receiving the Oath of Office as Senate President Federal Republic of Nigeria From Clerk of the National Assembly,Salisu Maikasuwa(right),Senator Ahmad Sani Yerima (middle) during the 8th National Assembly Inauguration PHOTO: Ladidi Lucy Elukpo.

• Nigerians in Diaspora support action
• PDP warns against witch-hunt on Clerk, others

Indications emerged yesterday that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is still keen on sanctioning the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and their band of supporters in the National Assembly who defied the directives of the party.

APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed who spoke with reporters after the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee (NWC) met with a group of senators led by Ahmed Lawan, said the party would follow due process to carry out the punitive measures on the renegade lawmakers.

Asked whether the party is going ahead to sanction the Saraki/Dogara groups, he said: “They party has not changed its position on the matter. Sanctions must follow due process. You won’t tell someone his offence, not the issue of disciplinary panel, but there will be due process.”

Mohammed, who disclosed that the aggrieved lawmakers were at the secretariat of the party to confer with the party leadership, said there was nothing wrong if they exercise their rights to go to court over the outcome of the election of the Senate Presidency.

According to him: “There are our senators that will like to confer with the party leadership, they came to confer on the crisis in the National Assembly. I think the party made its expression clear on the matter, that it is unhappy with the outcome of the election and I think we won’t say anything beyond that. What the senators will do is within the capability and rights of the senators.”

In the same vein, members of the Nigeria Group 2015 in the United Kingdom (UK) have expressed serious concerns about the purported elections of the Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives conducted on Tuesday, June 9, 2015.

In a statement issued yesterday in London and signed by Mr. Kingsley Ogbonda, Lead Officer – Communications, the group said: “Whereas the said elections may have met the requisite provisions of the constitution having been conducted with the required quorum; we are deeply concerned in the manner they were done. The behaviour, way and manner of those who put themselves forward to be elected and those who voted and conducted the elections have brought the whole process into disrepute and rendered them morally objectionable.

Elections for the principal offices of the National Assembly are not matters to be treated cavalierly. It is not a game for errant juvenile. If those who have found themselves in these two Houses think that Nigerians are still in for their characteristic mindless jokes, they better think differently. We demand good governance now.

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has cautioned the Presidency and the APC against any attempt to intimidate or harass the Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa and the National Assembly Service Commission for performing their statutory functions during the inauguration of the federal legislature.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement yesterday said any attempt by the APC to transfer their frustration, which was a product of their ineptitude, would amount to witch-hunt and victimisation.

The party said the undertone of the statement of President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, that the Clerk was adequately requested to shift the time for the inauguration to enable the President address the APC legislators but he ignored it “amounts to putting undue pressure on civil servants in the National Assembly for performing their legitimate duties and sends a serious signal which should not be ignored.”

It said the APC displayed its arrogance and disrespect for the dictates of the constitution by attempting to adjust the President’s promulgation order on the National Assembly and seeking to put their interest over and above the supreme law of the land.

Mohammed, who denied knowledge that Saraki was billed to be at the party secretariat alongside the aggrieved senators, however, said that he was not aware if the aggrieved senators had made good their threats to go to court to challenge the legality of Saraki’s election as President of the Senate.

The group further said: “What is more worrying about Bukola’s actions is that he teamed up with members of PDP whom Nigerians after sixteen years of forced toleration repudiated in just few months ago. Perhaps, Bukola needs to be reminded what Nigerians mean by CHANGE. By change, Nigerians want a functioning government where the President and the legislative bodies are in synch in delivering service to the citizens, that upholds the rule of law and order against impunity, fights corruption and restores confidence of its citizens and the world in its conduct.

“President Buhari is right to remain above the fray and ambivalent about Bukola’s behaviour. But APC if it is to usher in the change Nigerians deserve and for its own survival, must sanction Bukola. All those who feel that they have paid for President Buhari’s success must not forget that as Nigerians, we know how they made their money. If truth be told, they have still not settled their debt to us – the people.”

9 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    Anyone who wants to devise a selfish act will say “Nigerians” even Orubebe was saying “Nigerians will not take this from you”; All the evil and personal thing that they want Nigerians to support, they will want us to believe that they are fighting for our interest, but we all know what they want.
    Ours is a good governance and not mindful of whether it is APC, PDP,ANPP,KOWA or whatever party. I do not follow party to vote, I only vote Candidates which is the important thing we are suppose to do.

    —NNB— Founder of https://www.jotscroll.com/

  • Author’s gravatar

    APC HAS ONLY ONE CHOICE. Studying the going-on’s in APC before, during and since the 2015 elections, I believe APC has only one crucial choice to make; it either breaks up or it get rid of the cancer in its body. Now the earlier the party make its choice, the better for it and the better for the country. It is bound to happen. It is not a question of “if”, it is a question of “when”.
    The cancer in APC is well known and the earlier the party opens its door to the disease to quietly walk away to Arigbiji where it came from or head back to Chicago where its phoney phonetics and diction is better understood. There has been an important political vacuum in the Chicago politics since the death of its former Mayor whose politics dominated the City like a colossus. I am sure Chicago can do with our man. After all, the budget of Chicago in a year must be in multiples of that of Lagos in a decade.
    The irritant in APC is not upsetting the politians in that party alone. Even those of us who are not in politics but who are political animals like the next man cannot stand what is going on. Let APC call a spade a spade and get rid of this individual. Enough is enough.

  • Author’s gravatar

    The way APC is going about this will be a make or break of this party NBA has said that Saraki has not done anything wrong. The pary as it were seemed divided. In all of these, time will tell.

  • Author’s gravatar

    As of the House of Rep – There was an election.

    As for the Senate – It was rigged. There was selection, and The Clerk has some explaining to do as it seemed he even falsified the result by claiming that all PDP-Senator elect voted …51 APC Senator-elect were absent, as well as, at least one PDP-Senator elect ( I imagine there are more than one …see the clip) were also absent. … take a listen to Ben Bruce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZrGDULpEZQ&feature=youtu.be

  • Author’s gravatar

    APC – “You know how thy made their money” and yet still you went ahead and took heir tainted money to rig yourselves into office. There is no honour among thieves. Period.

    • Author’s gravatar

      Our party democracy is a joke. APC or PDP should understand what party supremacy is about, they should understand that before an election party officials controls the party and after election elected party members through the caucus controls the party. The party chairman’s power is over and if the party wins the presidency, then the president and party leaders in both houses are automatically the party leaders. Elected party members through caucus enforces party policies, unelected party official has no right and power to micromanage elected officials that are accountable to the electorate that they represent. Senate majority leader or president as in the case of Nigeria is the most senior member, bear in mind this qualification is not automatic. Some junior member can challenge the leadership if necessary. In the Nigerian project, the senate president is elected by the senate, hence that person is seizes to be partisan as he enjoys the support of the majority of the senators. Unelected party officials have no moral right to adjudicate who should lead the senate even in the American project where the position is not attain by election. If APC or PDP party officials are interested in dictating who should be this or that after election, they should put down their names and run for the office.

  • Author’s gravatar

    The last paragraph confirms our fears!

  • Author’s gravatar

    The President duly issued a proclamation to bring into life the 8th National Assembly. In that issue, the President was certain; he said the 8th Assembly shall come into effect at 10:00 A.M. of June 9, this year of our Lord, 2015. And in line with that constitutional order, 57 Senators-elect dutifully, patriotically and constitutionally went to the Senate Chambers to be inaugurated and were, in deed, inaugurated. Thereafter, the Senate carried out its first legislative duty which was the election of the Senate President and his Deputy. That they did successfully and in fact, their President, Senator Saraki, enjoyed wider acceptance that he was elected opposed. And that of his deputy keenly contested.

    Meanwhile, some other Senators unpatriotically ignored the President’s order of proclamation and went to the NICON hotel extension behind the ICC, just to wine and merry for having won election into the Senate. And by the time they sauntered back to the Senate, the law and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria have taken their due course. The wining and merrymaking Senators now say the hand of the clock should be shifted backwards to accommodate their giddy dream that 36 hours, instead of 24, make up a day. That cannot happen as it is a pure lie.

    APC should be full of gratitude to Senator David Mark for being himself – being and remaining gentlemanly in the circumstance. In fact, they should also thank Senator Saraki for standing up to defend APC’s interest at that crucial moment. Had Saraki not done what he did, one of those 49 PDP Senators dutifully present would have emerged the Senate President and no Jupiter will reverse it, since APC doesn’t have the 2/3 majority to upturn it. APC should be full of gratitude to Saraki and the Clerk of the National Assembly.

  • Author’s gravatar

    The mixed message from this Diaspora body is as self-confusing as the failed Electoral College gamble it strives to defend.