Fresh Crisis Looms As Pro-Lawan Senators Regroup Against Saraki

.Trouble is not over yet for Senate President Bukola Saraki as forces against his ascendancy to the nation’s number three position within the All Progressives Congress (APC) are regrouping. New Telegraph gathered that the Senate Unity Forum (SUF) will meet today at the Maitama residence of one of the lawmakers.

The SUF is a group of senators that supported Senator Ahmed Lawan for the Senate presidency. Details of the agenda of the planned meeting of the anti-Saraki senators were sketchy and hazy as at yesterday, but a member of the group said the purpose of the parley billed for this evening was to ‘review and re-strategise’.

The source who confirmed the meeting said although the pro-Lawan senators had decided to ‘lie low’ before now, the ‘need to instil integrity is not lost’ on them. “This is politics and some of you had already reported that we have allowed and accepted Saraki; this is not true.

The need to instil integrity is not lost on us and we are not taking anything lightly in this regard. “For now, it is not clear which course our steps will take but we need to meet first to review our earlier resolve and restrategise for our course; there is no going back,” the senator said.

Asked if the smooth clearance given to the president’s ministerial nominees was not enough to give Saraki any reprieve, the source said the president had nothing to do with the issue of the Senate leadership. “The issue is not the president; he is not interested in who is our leader.

He has said it severally; it is our duty to allow what we want as a Senate,” he said. It could not be independently confirmed if the planned re-grouping of the anti-Saraki senators was on the strength of the reported withdrawal of support from the PDP senators. Both Senator Dino Melaye and Alhaji Lai Mohammed, spokespersons for the Senate and the All Progressives Congress (APC) kept mum as calls and text messages to their lines were ignored.

The development is coming at a time senators elected on the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are still pained by what they called ‘Saraki’s betrayal’ on the issue of the screening of former Rivers State governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, as minister. “We are still ruing Saraki’s betrayal over Amaechi; no decision on him yet but one thing is sure; we won’t allow him to use us again,” a South- South senator confided in New Telegraph.
New Telegraph gathered that the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, appears to be caught in a web of intrigues as PDP senators have resolved not to give backing to Saraki anytime the APC leadership goes after him. “We are still ruing Saraki’s betrayal over Amaechi; no decision on him yet but one thing is sure; we won’t allow him to use us again.

“It is painful that after our earlier agreement that the issue of the committee report on Amaechi be debated, the Senate President went his party way and brazenly cleared Amaechi. “We know the Senate President will soon be under pressure from his party leadership to step aside and mark my words, we will not be there to save him; he has to carry his cross alone,” a senator from one of the South- South states confided in our correspondent. But it is yet to be seen how effective the PDP senators can carry their plan as the leadership of the opposition party is said to be concerned that Ekweremadu might be affected in the long run.

National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a telephone chat said the party had ‘implicit confidence’ in the senators on its platform. “We made it clear that in the light of the ministerial screening process that was lacking in the rule of law and due process, especially when the issues on the table have to do with alleged corruption, we gave our support that they staged a walk out.

“On whether or not the PDP senators will withdraw support for the Senate President anytime the APC decides to go after him, as a party, we have the firm and implicit confidence in our distinguished senators that they will always do what is right at any given time, we don’t want to pre-empt them at all,” Metuh said.

New Telegraph had on September 28 reported that the Senate President was likely to enjoy a temporary reprieve as a result of the need to have a hitchfree clearance for the ministerial nominees submitted by the president. Shortly before the transmission of the ministerial list to the Senate, a member of the SUF said Saraki’s travails would begin soon after the issue of the ministers was settled. He hinted that Saraki would be allowed to preside over the screening but the battle to unseat him would resume after then.

“Honestly, when we were telling Nigerians that this man cannot be our Senate President, the whole country, especially the media, almost branded us undemocratic elements. “Those of us who did not want him did so on grounds of morality and integrity as well as on political grounds – that such a man cannot lead us in the Senate.

“But here we are; the world has seen the entire scandal that is now ongoing. The most painful aspect of it is that some Nigerians either play politics with it or are even looking for scapegoats; that the man is being persecuted. “Yes we are still resolute and firm in our decision to make him step aside, especially against the backdrop of the ongoing trial; but the issue we are looking at is that of timing.

“The timing of any such move has to be strategic so as not to create problems for us when the ministerial list gets to us. We don’t want to be distracted. “We don’t want a situation whereby our moves in the Senate against a single individual will draw us back or slow us down as regards the federal cabinet.

“If need be, Senator Saraki will preside over the process that will screen the ministerial nominees, but as soon as we are through with that stage, because we do not want Nigerians to say we are the ones stalling the process of having ministers, we will move against him,” he had said.

New Telegraph.