Omo-Agege: Senate panel chair, Marafa, Ndume trade words

Published April 23, 2018

Senator Ovie Omo-Agege


Leke Baiyewu and Ade Adesomoju


The crisis between the proscribed Parliamentary Support Group and others senators deepened on Sunday, as the senior lawmakers threatened to expose their colleagues in the PSG.



Some senators, who confided in The PUNCH, said contrary to the claim of the PSG members, they (PSG senators) were not working for President Muhammadu Buhari. Members of the PSG are against the amendment to the Electoral Act.

The Chairman of the Senator Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) Senator Kabiru Marafa, who spoke to one of our correspondents on Sunday, stated that efforts of the pro-Buhari group had been counter-productive to the success of the President.

The Senate had two weeks ago proscribed the group but its members had rejected the proscription. The upper chamber of the National Assembly also suspended Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who is Secretary of the group, for dragging the Senate to court over the Electoral Act amendment.

It was further learnt that as part of the group’s plans to fight back, the PSG , at the plenary on Tuesday (tomorrow), would challenge the ban on the activities of the group by the upper chamber of the National Assembly.

Marafa however challenged members of the PSG to come forward and express their grievances as they have planned, threatening that they would be exposed on their anti-Buhari activities.

“Let them come. We will confront them and tell them the truth to their faces. Let them call themselves anything but for God’s sake, they should not call themselves lovers or supporters of Muhammadu Buhari. They don’t support him; they don’t like him. That is the truth.

“The President never came out to say he needed anybody’s support. If you are talking about the elections sequence, he did not say he wanted somebody to support him; he only said he did not support certain clauses in the Electoral Act 2010 Amendment Bill,” he said.

Describing members of the group as hypocrites, the lawmaker recalled that they betrayed Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress by working against their candidates for the Senate leadership in 2015.



Marafa specifically cited the anti-APC/Buhari roles played by Senator Abdullahi Adamu and Senator Ali Ndume, who are now leaders of the PSG.

He recalled that while the ruling party and the President chose the current Majority Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan, to be the Senate President, Adamu and Ndume rooted for Senator Bukola Saraki who later became the Senate President.

He said while those loyal to the APC and Buhari were members of the Senate Unity Forum, Adamu and Ndume had pitted their tents with the pro-Saraki’s Like Minds Senators. He added that it was later that both of them and several others “defected” from the LMS to SUF.

“If they are truly lovers of Mr. President, why did they queue behind the Senate President that time? Where was Ali Ndume? He was part of the Like Minds. They rebelled against the party and against the President. Why are they now creating another body to say that they are supporting the President? When the President asked them to do something, they refused to do it.”

The lawmaker added, “If Bukola Saraki is a devil today, who installed the devil in the chamber? Are they not the people? Are they not hypocrites? They are. If Bukola Saraki is a devil, who crowned the devil as the Senate President? And from the time Bukola Saraki ascended the presidency of the Senate to this time, what has changed?”

Responding, Ndume said Buhari would now know who was more loyal to him (President) between him and Marafa.

He said, “I don’t want to take issues with Marafa. He is a senator and I am a senator but that is not to say that we are all the same.ý All animals are equal but some are more equal than the others. The good thing about this is that Buhari himself knows me, knows Marafa; and he knows who is Marafa and who is Ndume.

“If at the beginning I was not with Buhari and now I am with him, and then he was with Buhari and now he is with Saraki, which one is better? ýLet us agree with what he said: at the beginning I was not with Buhari and I have now realised that Buhari is good and decided to be with him. But he was with Buhari and now, because he was given Petroleum Downstream (committee to head), he is now a defender of Saraki.

“The good thing is that Buhari knows me more than Marafa because I only met Marafa in the 7th Senate but I have been with Buhari since 2002. I only knew Marafa in 2011.”

Another senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, recalled that he had initially signed on with the PSG but was forced to back out of the group when he realised that it was “self-serving.”

While dismissing the claim by the group that they had “over 50” signatures to their credit, Marafa challenged them to publish the identities.

Meanwhile, President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, on Sunday visited a female sergeant-at-Arms, Mrs. Sandra Davou, who was injured on Wednesday by the suspected thugs who invaded the Senate chamber and snatched the mace.

Saraki described it as a “sad day” and “a disgrace” to Nigeria’s democracy, while calling for unity and firmness in eliminating “all such undemocratic tendencies.”

Davou and her colleagues had struggled to stop the thugs but she fell in the process.

Saraki, who was accompanied by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu; Senator Isa Misau and Senator Baba Kaka Garbai, was at Davou’s home in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory.

In a related development, Omo-Agege has denied signing the report by the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, which recommended the suspension of Ndume in March 2017.

http://www.punchng.com/omo-agege-senate-panel-chair-marafa-ndume-trade-words/

Senators elected by the masses are fighting on who pleases the president most..
Meanwhile the masses whom voted them are relegated.

Hmmm

All of them will be totally disgraced in the next election. No right thinking human being would be boasting in the open that he's supporting Buhari right now, unless that person needs a psychiatric check-up like Buhari himself.

Esseite:
Senators elected by the masses are fighting on who pleases the president most..
Meanwhile the masses whom voted them are relegated.

word!!!

[s]

escodotman:
All of them will be totally disgraced in the next election. No right thinking human being would be boasting in the open that he's supporting Buhari right now, unless that person needs a psychiatric check-up like Buhari himself.

[/s]

Pained Nnamdi Kanu's follower. Buhari will be reelected, and Nnamdi Cownu will remain a fugitive.

Apparently it's not only buhari needs to be voted out.

Get your PVC today to vote out any incompetent public office holder(s) you know in 2019!

ok

How is this our business ?

If they like, they shld behead themselves for the peace of the nation.

Useless animals in human skin.

Just passing

CilicMarin:


Mynd44 lalasticlala rule 2

Abeg shift! No rule is broken! Zombie!

CilicMarin:
[s][/s]

Pained Nnamdi Kanu's follower. Buhari will be reelected, and Nnamdi Cownu will remain a fugitive.

Lazy youth buhari was yapping about

Nigerians are doomed in the hands of their senators. Imagine these people are contesting to prove to the president that they most loyal to him, forgetting that they were elected to check and oppose the excesses of the executive(president buhari). I sympathise with their constituents who elected them as reps. Please opposition parties should take note of this as campaign key point against them. So even in this buhari's abuse of power, nepotism, disrespect to court order and rule of law, incompetency and bad policies which have resulted to polarisation of the country, insecurity, hate speeches, hunger, poverty, economic woes, bloodshed, unemployment etc these people still fight themselves in order to prove their loyalty to the man they ought to check and oppose. In fact, they have no business in the Red chamber. Please send them parking come 2019 case close.

Which one be PSG again? PSG wey don comot for champions league teteeee

omo-agege must surly behave like omo-oshodi park

Wentin concern me?

why are Nigeria youth fighting themselves over this present politicians.....instead of thinking and preparing themselves before 2019 with their PVC

let them kill themselves who cares.Hopel3s/useless set of pipu.spit

Are these selfish senators working for the president or their constituencies?

Ayam a LazyNigerianYouth akant read all this ... its too early morning

deltaisgreat:
Nigerians are doomed in the hands of their senators. Imagine these people are contesting to prove to the president that they most loyal to him, forgetting that they were elected to check and oppose the excesses of the executive(president buhari). I sympathise with their constituents who elected them as reps. Please opposition parties should take note of this as campaign key point against them. So even in this buhari's abuse of power, nepotism, disrespect to court order and rule of law, incompetency and bad policies which have resulted to polarisation of the country, insecurity, hate speeches, hunger, poverty, economic woes, bloodshed, unemployment etc these people still fight themselves in order to prove their loyalty to the man they ought to check and oppose. In fact, they have no business in the Red chamber. Please send them parking come 2019 case close.

All these children on NAIRALAND sef. Smh

escodotman:
All of them will be totally disgraced in the next election. No right thinking human being would be boasting in the open that he's supporting Buhari right now, unless that person needs a psychiatric check-up like Buhari himself.

We shall see who needs psychiatric check-up between wailers like you and Buhari.