Northern group faults AGF’s silence over Senate rules used against Natasha, others

The Growth and Development of Northern Nigeria (GDNN) has criticized the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, for remaining silent on the application of Senate Rules used to suspend or punish senators.

At a press briefing in Abuja, GDNN Caretaker Chairman, Abdullahi Ibrahim Halilu, accused the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, of targeting northern senators and using Senate rules as a political weapon.

He said, “The office of the Senate President is systematically being degraded and reduced to one that believes in use of fist to address serious national issues even where laws exist to address them.”

Halilu referenced past incidents involving the late Senator Nuhu Aliyu (DIG rtd), Senator Ali Ndume, and Senator Abdul Ningi, stating they were “ruthlessly dealt with in a manner that was most unpleasant to us as Northern Nigerians and pleasing to the serving Senate Presidents and their ‘Vanguards’.”

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He added, “We are further concerned that the Senate has appropriated to itself the rights of the constituencies that elected each of them to recall, suspend or even remove completely any erring Senator through imposition of the application of provisions of ‘Rules’ of the Senate to carry out such penalties on duly elected Senators without any legal advice of a wrong doing on its side by the Honourable Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federation.”

On the issue of oversight, Halilu stressed, “The wrongs allegedly committed by the serving Senate President cannot be challenged or investigated. It is indeed the duty of the Minister of Justice to initiate the investigation with a view to establishing the truth of the allegation or otherwise.”

GDNN condemned the increasing use of Senate suspensions to silence dissent.

“We at the GDNN are appalled and concerned that Senators now have no rights to speak up or out on issues that are done wrongly but are classified as ‘Rules Violators’ and are quickly dispensed of using ‘Suspension’ as a tool to weed out such ‘irritants’ in the opinion of the few that have constituted themselves in the Senate as the ‘Vanguards’ of the serving ‘Senate President’ and not the Office itself.”

The group expressed alarm at what it described as the Senate Rules being elevated above the Nigerian Constitution.

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“We are further concerned that the ‘Rules’ of the Senate Chamber is today superior to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that created INEC that conducted elections to constitute the composition of the Senate.”

Referencing the ongoing dispute between Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and the Senate President, GDNN noted the seriousness of the allegations and the lack of response.

“We are all aware of the controversy surrounding the issue of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, where serious accusations were made by the Senator against the Senate President, which has been swept under the carpet.”

However, GDNN also rejected the notion that Akpoti-Uduaghan’s situation was based on gender.

“The group does not believe the statement allegedly made by Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan at the UN Women Assembly that she is being persecuted because she’s a ‘woman’, noting that what is happening is a pattern of recklessness and impunity by leaders who should show good examples to the citizens but have failed to do so.”

Halilu concluded by warning against the continued targeting of northern lawmakers.

Other topics discussed at the briefing included the proposed Queen Amina University in Kaduna, cash policy changes by the Central Bank Governor, and money laundering regulations.

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