Senate President, Bukola Saraki
hehehehe......Following the shock removal of Senator Ali Ndume as Majority leader in the Senate, the Senate President has reacted. The President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, on Wednesday said there
was no truth in insinuations that he sacrificed Senator Ali Ndume who
was sacked as the Senate Majority Leader on Tuesday, Punch reports.
Ndume who until yesterday was removed as the Senate Majority leader
by the Senate caucus as he went to pray felt embarrassed to learn after
prayers that his fellow members went through his back and agitated for
his removal. He said he had no hint that he was going to be removed as
he has done nothing bad to warrant it.
Ndume was replaced by Senator Ahmed Lawan whom the All Progressives Congress' leadership had wanted to be the Senate President.
Speaking to State House correspondents shortly before meeting
behind closed doors with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential
Villa, a Abuja, Saraki said he did not sacrifice Ndume.
However, many believe the removal of Ndume was as a result of power
struggle within the APC which serves as compensation for the Lawan
after he lost out in the bid to become the senate president.
A member of the Senate has said the Senate followed due process in removing former Senate leader, Ali Ndume.
Sen. Ali Ndume
Sen. Kabiru Marafa has debunked speculations that former Majority
Leader, Sen. Ali Ndume, was removed because of his stand on the
confirmation of Mr Ibrahim Magu, Acting Chairman of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Marafa, who is Chairman Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream),
made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
on Wednesday in Abuja.
The lawmaker said it was the prerogative of the party to appoint or
reject any principal officer as contained in the Senate Standing Rules.
Mafara, who is the spokesman of Unity Forum, a faction of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) senators in support of Lawan, said 40 APC
lawmakers appended their signatures in favour of Ndume’s removal.
He also told NAN that the most important thing was that the lawmakers that appended their signatures wanted Ndume removed.
“The rumours making the rounds that Ndume was removed because of Magu’s confirmation of appointment is not true.
“I am not from the same place with Magu as Ndume is but I fought for him.
“I am in the senate as an APC senator and as long as what we do
is within the dictates of the Constitution, I am here to protect it.
“The President submitted Magu’s name and I worked for Magu and a lot of senators did too,’’ he said.
On Ndume’s acceptance of his removal, Marafa commended him for his sportsmanship.
He, however, faulted him for claiming that due process was not followed in his removal.
According to Marafa, “we, as a senate, are guided by our rules;
whatever we do, we are guided by our rules and those rules are offshoot
of the constitution.
“Section 60 of the Constitution gives us the right to regulate
our own procedure; the moment we say this is how we want to do it we
have a responsibility to do it that way.
“If you go back to Order 32, Section 6, you will see how principal officers can be removed.
“It says you can remove a principal officer by a majority, it didn’t say the officer must be consulted.
“This is unlike is the case with executive officers like the
President and governors; the constitution says that you have to confront
them with your allegations. You cannot just sit down and impeach a
governor.’’
The lawmaker urged journalists to always investigate before
reporting any matter of public interest to avoid misleading the people
and to interpret rules correctly to avoid misinterpretation.
“This is so that we are not perceived as applying the rules
selectively or that we violated the rules in the case of Ndume and
followed the rules in another instance.
“For the record, we followed the due process in Ndume’s case."
Sen. Ali Ndume was on Jan. 11 removed as a Majority Leader by the
APC Senate Caucus. He was replaced by Sen. Ahmed Lawan (APC-Yobe North)
who, until his appointment, was Chairman Senate Committee on Defence.
Ndume on the floor of the senate on Wednesday accepted his removal in the interest of promoting democracy.
-NAN
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