INTROVERT:
newspunch indeed

haffaze777:
Report according to Punch Newspaper suggests
that some anti – Bukola Saraki senators have
asked the senate president and his deputy, Ike
Ekweremadu to step aside since the police
investigation had established that the senate
rules used for their election had been forged.
Senator Kabir Marafa, spokesperson for the
Senate Unity Forum, a group of Senators loyal to
Senator Ahmad Lawal, the APC’s choice for the
senate presidency outwitted by Saraki, expressed
satisfaction at the report.
“I have not seen a copy of the report and I don’t
know the details but if a case of forgery has been
established as being claimed in the media, I think
the ideal thing is for the presiding officers who
benefitted from the illegal amendments to resign
their positions,” Marafa said.
Marafa, an APC Senator from Zamfara Central,
asked both the police and the justice ministry to
do the right thing by taking necessary steps to
ensure justice.
“On our part, we are resuming on Tuesday and
our demand on the floor of the Senate is that the
Senate President, Bukola Saraki, must ensure
that the chamber is run according to its rules,” he
said.
But the Senate President challenged the Senators
calling for his resignation to articulate their
position on the floor of the Senate instead of
resorting to media propaganda.
In a statement by his spokesperson, Yusuph
Olaniyonu, Saraki said, “I am not going to
respond to speculations based on a report which
the police has not confirmed or which no one had
seen a copy; so I don’t think it will be proper for
me to react to what does not exist.
“As for those calling on the presiding officers to
resign, why are they making their call on the
pages of newspapers? They should go to the floor
of the Senate to articulate their views. There is no
point drawing unnecessary public attention to
issues that can be treated in-house”
A Peoples Democratic Party senator from Ekiti
South, Abiodun Olujimi, said the issue would be
discussed on the floor on Tuesday with a view to
condemning a situation whereby “some people
would be externalising the affairs of the
chamber”
“We will definitely study the report and debate it
dispassionately to look at the issues involved but
we are going to condemn the idea whereby some
people, by their action, would be threatening the
legislative immunity by involving outsiders in the
internal affairs of the chamber, “ she said.
Attempts to speak with the Clerk to the National
Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa, over the
development were unsuccessful on Sunday as
calls to his mobile phone did not connect while
text messages also sent did not deliver.
Sources in Abuja on Sunday indicated that
Senators were billed for a showdown when they
resume on Tuesday (tomorrow)as rival factions
were poised to take on each other over the police
report alleging forgery in the Senate standing
order.
The PUNCH reliably learnt that the pro-Lawan
group were considering two options, including a
call on Saraki and his deputy, Ekweremadu, to
resign.
It was also learnt that the group was planning to
obtain the report and submit it to a Federal High
Court that is already hearing a suit on the matter
in Abuja.
Senators Barnabas Gemade; Abu Ibrahim,
Lawan, Geore Akume, Kabir Marafa, Sulaiman
Hunkuyi and Gbenga Ashafa had asked the court
to declare the inauguration of the 8th Senate as
strange and irregular.
They are also asking the court to declare the
Senate Standing Orders 2015 used for Saraki and
Ekweremadu’s elections as inoperative, null and
lack of legislative process.



http://www.newspunch.org/forgery-scandal-senators-ask-saraki-ekweremadu-to-step-aside/

INTROVERT:
newspunch indeed