started wooing senators who are loyal to the Senate President, Senator Bukola
Saraki, the Punch informs.
It was gathered that the move was part of fresh efforts to change the leadership of
the Senate.
According to the Punch, the group comprises senators who were opposed to the
emergence of Saraki as senate president.
The SUF members, who contacted the pro-Saraki senators, reportedly hinged their
argument on the ongoing trial of the Senate President at the Code of Conduct
Tribunal. The group might have succeeded in securing the support of 12 pro-Saraki
senators, mainly the Peoples Democratic Party members.
The Punch investigation shows that the anti-Saraki group sought the support of the
senate president’s loyalists on purpose: the senate president could not be removed
without the support of some senators that were sympathetic to him.
READ ALSO: Bukola Saraki’s Trial Could Have Significant Implications For Buhari, APC
At the inauguration of the Senate on June 6, 57 out of 109 senators were reported to
have voted for Saraki. However, members of the SUF, who were supporting Senator
Ahmed Lawan were at a meeting with the party leaders when the election was held.
Some pro-Lawan supporters was said had allegedly met with some APC leaders on
the need to remove Saraki. Reportedly, they started meeting with the leaders shortly
after the Senate went on recess.
A member of the group, who asked not to name him in press, claimed that series of
meetings had been held with APC leaders like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Chief John Odigie-
Oyegun and Chief Bisi Akande.
A member of the group from the South-West geopolitical zone, who also craved
anonymity, confirmed that the SUF members had started reaching out to their
colleagues who had joined the camp of Saraki.
Further checks revealed that some of the APC leaders who met with the SUF
members had asked the anti-Saraki senators to work on some influential PDP senators
who could get their colleagues to support their course.
A source said, “I am not in Abuja now, we shall resume on Monday. I don’t have
specific information at the moment but what I can assure you of is that our leaders
have said that it is fight to finish.
“We learnt that the like minds senators are already working on some of their supporters
in the PDP camp to reject the ministerial list by refusing to screen them but we are also
ready for them. I won’t disclose our strategy for now.”
One of our correspondents further learnt that the SUF were also working on a political
solution to execute its agenda since it would be difficult for its members to dangle
financial inducements to their colleagues because of the anti – corruption posture of
the Buhari administration.
One of them confided in one of our correspondents that Saraki might want to save his
face from the impending embarrassment at the end of the CCT trial by opting to step
aside.
He said, “We know that he might want to give conditions like a settlement of his CCT
case out of court, withdrawing of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission charges
against his wife and an end to his former manager’s trial for alleged fraud at the Société
Générale Bank. We could help him in this regard to have a soft landing and avoid
disgrace. “
Senate spokesperson, who is also a die-hard supporter of Saraki, Senator Dino Melaye,
did not pick his call when contacted for comments on Thursday
Also efforts to get reaction of the SUF’s spokesperson, Senator Kabiru Marafa, did not
succeed as calls to his mobile telephone did not go through.
Also some senators contacted across the two camps, declined official comments but a
PDP senator from the South-South geopolitical zone, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said, “We are watching events as they unfold. I won’t say more than that.”
The source explained off the record that since the trial of the senate president centered
on corrupt enrichment as a public officer, the SUF would appeal to the conscience of
Nigerians and the international community to prevail on Saraki to step aside and clear
himself of the allegations preferred against him by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Part of the strategy, the source added, would include sponsoring of a motion by a
member of the group to draw the attention of the red chamber to the trial of Saraki and
plead with him to safe himself from unnecessary distraction by stepping aside for
adequate concentration at the tribunal.
He said, “Nigerians should not see the on-going trial of the senate president as a witch-
hunt, rather, they should rather try and find out whether it was true that he included a
multi – million dollar property he bought in 2006 as part of his assets as of 2003.
“We should stop playing politics with everything in this country. The mantra of the
President Muhammadu Buhari administration is anti – corruption and it will not be
proper to have a morally deficient person presiding over the affairs of the legislature
being a critical arm of government.
“The prosecution counsel had promised to shock Nigerians with the revelations of
witnesses who had testified against the senate president at the CCT. The implication of
this is that all the charges were not fabricated or invented to spite him. He should
therefore go and face his trial. “
Attempts to get the reactions of the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-
Oyegun, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed as well as that of
the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, were unsuccessful.
The National Chairman of the party could not be reached as calls to his mobile
telephone indicated that it was switched off.
Repeated calls to the mobile telephone numbers of Mohammed and Tinubu’s
Spokesperson, Mr. Sunday Dare, were neither picked nor returned.
A response to text messages sent to them was still being awaited as of the time of
filing this report at 8:45pm.
A pro-Saraki senator confided in one of our correspondents that the seat of the Senate
President was not threatened because the Code of Conduct Tribunal had no jurisdiction
to try Senator Bukola Saraki for any criminal offence.
He said, “The idea that members of the SUF are reaching out to pro-Saraki senators in
the senate does not arise because majority of the members of the upper chamber had
freely elected their presiding officers and would not be in a hurry to remove them
because of any politically motivated trial by a tribunal which lacks jurisdiction to do so.
“Nobody can impeach or arrest the Senate President, and the lawyers are there to argue
out the competence or otherwise of the CCT to try the case preferred against him.
More than 80 senators had signed a document with which they unanimously passed a
vote of confidence on their president.
“No senator had approached any of us on any issue of impeachment because they
know the answer already. They cannot get 73 senators to impeach the Senate
President. They are playing games and we are also ready for them. “
Attempts to speak with Senators Dino Melaye, Eyinnaya Abaribe, Hope Uzodinma,
James Manager, Mao Ohuabunwa, Ali Ndume, and Bala Ibn Na’Allah, to get their views
on the development failed as they neither picked their calls not react to text messages
sent to them.
The phone of the Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media and Publicity, Alhaji
Yusuph Olaniyonu, was also switched off when one of our correspondents dialed his
number on Friday evening.
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