Hehe...wahala....THE Peoples Democratic Party has said
that the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, is fit for the office he is
occupying; hence it is not considering any candidate to replace him.
The PDP denied reports that it was
already looking for a senator from the opposition party to replace
Saraki, who is currently under pressure to resign from office following
his trial for false asset declaration by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Nigeria’s two main labour unions–Nigeria
Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress – on Saturday demanded
Saraki’s resignation on moral grounds consequent upon his trial at the
CCT.
The
National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, who spoke
to our correspondent on Sunday, said the party still believed that the
trial of Saraki was political and that the PDP would not think of
abandoning the Senate president until it sees the merit of the case.
Metuh said, “We have no candidate for
the office of the Senate President, because we have a fit person
occupying the position for now.
“We are behind him and we can’t abandon
him just because he is undergoing trial. Anybody can be put on trial,
but the question we should ask is whether the trial is political or not.
“Does the trial have merit? When we see the merit of the case, we will take position. But for now, there is nothing like that.”
Saraki, a former governor of Kwara
State, is currently facing 13 counts of making false declaration as a
governor between 2003 and 2011.
Since his arraignment before the
tribunal, there had been speculations that the PDP, which produced
Saraki’s deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, had been scheming to replace him with
one of its senators.
Among those being touted as possible
replacements for Saraki are Ekweremadu; a former Senate President, David
Mark; and a former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio.
Saraki had defied the directive of his
party, the All Progressives Congress, and had clinched the Senate
presidency with the backing of senators of the PDP, his former party.
The APC has 59 senators while the PDP
has 49 but the Senate inauguration and election took place on June 9
while about 50 APC senators were waiting for a meeting with President
Muhammadu Buhari outside the National Assembly.
But while the APC senators have been divided from inception of the eighth Senate, all the 49 PDP senators have been united.
The PDP senators have been the main backers of Saraki since his assumption of office as the Senate president.
Metuh said it was too early for the
party to be talking with its members in the Senate or thinking of
abandoning the Senate president.
He said the PDP was still of the opinion that Saraki was being prosecuted because of his political belief.
The opposition spokesman said, “We are
not even thinking of replacement for Saraki for now. The National
Assembly is a separate arm of the government just like the judiciary and
the executive.
“Is anyone thinking that there would be leadership change in the executive and the judiciary?
“Are they not independent of the other?
What we are interested in is that all the three arms of government must
be allowed to function independently of the other. We are saying there
shouldn’t be any interference.”
When he was reminded that the leadership
of both the executive and the judiciary are not on trial for any crime,
Metuh said that “trial doesn’t amount to conviction.”
The National President of Yoruba Youth
Alliance, Mr. Jackson Ojo, has said the trial of the Senate President,
Senator Bukola Saraki, by the Code of Conduct Bureau, can rubbish the
anti-corruption crusade of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said this in an interview with our correspondent in Osogbo on Sunday.
Ojo said the matter in which the alleged
crime of Saraki was ‘excavated’ by his political enemies suggested that
the trial was more of a witch-hunt than anti-corruption crusade.
The YYA leader said it was obvious that
some leaders of the All Progressives Congress, who wanted to pull down
Saraki by all means for emerging the President of the Senate, were
behind his ordeal.
He said the alleged persecution could disintegrate the party, as it portrays Buhari as being vindictive, if care was not taken.
He said, “The whole world is watching
and monitoring everything now. We are suspecting a sponsored allegation
against Saraki just because of his clever emergence as the Senate
President as against the decision and calculation of some oligarchic and
autocratic leaders in the APC.
“One thing I want people to be cautious
of is the outcome of the Saraki travails. If it is not openly and
transparently handled, it will boomerang on the party, the APC, and will
eventually put the corruption crusade of Buhari into a serious
ridicule.
“Saraki is not above the law and should not be treated as one, but they should allow things to operate transparently.”
Ojo said Saraki should be punished
according to the law if found guilty, but added that the trial should
not be done in a manner which would portray the agency as an attack dog
of some influential persons or party.
The YYA boss, however, said there were
some leaders within the APC fold, who he said had become untouchable
because of their wealth.
He said, “I make bold to condemn the
travail of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, in the hands of Code
of Conduct Bureau. Although, it is normal for the CCB to do its jobs
without fear or favour and without minding whose ox is gored, this
however should be done transparently and without sentiments.
“Senator Saraki, who declared his assets
to the CCB as a governor in the year 2003 and repeated the same in the
year 2007, and as a senator in the year 2011 without any complains, the
same Saraki is now guilty of the error or mistakes or dubious
declarations he committed over 12 years ago.”
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