Senator Ali Ndume appears to be the stumbling block to the chances of Senate President, Bukola Saraki, saving his job and getting out of the false asset declaration trial, unscathed.
Leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress and Speaker of the House of Representatives had initiated moves to save Saraki from the trial as well as losing his job, by offering him some conditions.
The conditions were that the Senate president should respect the party’s position on the appointment of principal officers of the Senate.
Saraki had gone against the directive of the APC leadership, by choosing Ali Ndume, Bala Na’allah and Francis Alimikhena, as principal officers.
The party’s candidates for the Senate leadership were; Ahmed Lawan (North-East) as Majority Leader; George Akume (North-Central) as deputy Majority Leader, and Abu Ibrahim (North-West) as Deputy Chief Whip.
Consequently, Saraki was given the option of retaining his job by reversing the appointments.
The Senate President reportedly tried to reverse the appointments of the Senate principal officers but Senator Ali Ndume refused to budge saying that he got his mandate from other senators from his zone.
While Bala Na’allah and Francis Alimikhena were said to be open to the idea of being replaced, Ndume rejected the arrangements.
To solve the imbroglio, a recent meeting was arranged between the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, Ndume and three other ranking senators as well as APC chairman, Chief John Odigie–Oyegun.
Yet again, Ndume informed VP Osinbajo that quitting his position was beyond him, as he was being threatened by his colleagues against making the move.
Ndume was reported to have said that he could only quit his role as Senate Leader, if his colleagues from the North-East were on the same page with it.
He was quoted to have said: “With due respect, Mr. Vice-President, I cannot give you what I don’t have. It is the North-East caucus in the Senate that gave me their mandate; they are the only one that can withdraw it.
“Apart from this, asking me to relinquish my position will likely create enmity between Borno and Yobe states because the Borno South would see it as a case of deliberate persecution of their representative in the APC government.”
