Senators opposed to the emergence of Bukola Saraki as Senate President, have accused a group of Senators backing him, ‘Like Minds’, of plotting with the Peoples Democratic Party, to make President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration fail.
The claim against the Like Minds Senators was made by the Senate Unity Forum, a group of Senators backing Senator Ahmed Lawan, the anointed candidate of the All Progressives Congress, for the Senate Presidency.
Spokesperson for the pro–Lawan group, Senator Kabiru Marafa, in an interview with Punch Newspapers, said: “The election of a Peoples Democratic Party senator as deputy senate president is evidently a grand conspiracy to sabotage the Buhari government.”
Marafa said:
“We are convinced that there is a general conspiracy in this country to sabotage the APC government, particularly the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. For God sake, why should Senator Bukola Saraki be declared as senate president with 57 votes while 51 other senators were disenfranchised.
“The management of the National Assembly knew that 109 Senators were being expected on the day of inauguration. Why did they not wait for the others to arrive before rushing to conduct election? Why should somebody do it now? Is it because Muhammadu Buhari from the North is the President?”
People are asking why we did not go to court to challenge Ekweremadu’s election. Why should we bother ourselves to go to court when there is already a grand conspiracy to frustrate all our moves? The conspirators had hijacked the media and are using them to complicate issues even in the court of public opinion. Why should we go to court?
“The Senate standing rule that was reviewed overnight is another pointer to the fact that the inauguration of the Senate on June 9 and the election of Saraki/Ekweremadu was part of the planned conspiracy.
“That is a criminal conspiracy. Our standing rules were changed. Who changed them? Why were they changed? For what purpose and who ordered the change? Who brought ballot boxes inside the chamber on June 9?
“Those who brought in the ballot boxes were obviously privy to the grand conspiracy. The rule of division was adopted in 2011 when David Mark contested election. People’s names were being called and each person would stand up and say who they want to vote for.
“But on June 9, boxes were brought into the chamber. Who brought them? Who changed our rule? President Buhari should prosecute the perpetrators of the criminal act because that was corruption”
In response to the allegations, a member of the Like Minds Senators, Rafiu Ibrahim, would deny the allegations of conspiracy against the government of President Buhari.
He said:
“We (Pro- Saraki group) campaigned across the party lines because some APC senators already had their candidate. However, when members of the Senate Unity Forum were not around in the chamber to vote, the PDP seized the opportunity to contest and Ekweremadu, being a two-term senate president, used his goodwill among the senators to score 54 votes across the APC and the PDP.”
“There was no case of conspiracy; there was no form of pact. In fact members of the Senate Unity Forum should be held responsible for the emergence of Ekweremadu as deputy senate president. If they had not absconded on the day of inauguration, an APC senator would have emerged just like what happened in the House of Representatives.”
“It is not correct to say that the election of Ekweremadu was part of a design to make President Buhari’s administration to fail. Rather, the Saraki leadership in the Senate would ensure the success of President Buhari’s programmes and policies and he had started work on it already.”
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