Saraki vs IGP: Buhari meets Senate committee in Aso Rock

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday met with the committee set up by the Senate to interface with him over an alleged attempt by the police to implicate him in a criminal case.

The committee led by Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan, discussed the matter with the president among other issues relating to the smoothening of relations with the executive.

The committee was raised following the order by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, for the transfer of some suspected criminals from Kwara State to the police headquarters which Saraki feared may be made to implicate him.

Lawan confirmed to State House corespondents after the meeting that the Saraki issue was indeed part of the discussion but declined to elaborate on it.

However, a member of the committee, Senator Abdulahi Adamu, said it was the Saraki versus the Inspector General of Police issue that they discussed with the president.

He said: “The Senate President made some comments to the effect that he received a call from his governor, Abdulfatah, that some persons, suspected to be cultists who are undergoing investigation in Ilorin, Kwara state will be transferred to Abuja and it is becoming a problem. That is why the governor intimated him.

“That is why it was decided that we should come, as leaders in the Assembly to hear what is going on and if anything can be done about it.”

On why the police should not be allowed to do work, he said: “That cannot stop us from coming to see the president on the matter and to hear from him if you really know what has been happening at the Assembly.

“If there is a harmonious working relationship between the executive and legislature and even the judiciary, all these types of things will not come up and even if they do come, not in the way they are coming up now.

“A small matter is often overblown and it becomes a problem for everybody. This is the result of some unnecessary utterances because things are not going as expected.

“So long as suspicion and accusations continue to exist within the minds of some people who ordinarily shouldn’t have them, these things will continue.”

Senator Adamu admitted that politics is involved in the ongoing controversy saying: “Of course it is. You don’t need to be told, it is surely politics.

“A senior Police officer in Kwara had stated that the name of the Senate president was not mentioned and if that is the case, there is no need for all these emissaries but since we have decided that a team should come, we have come to hear from the president and he listened to us.”

Asked what the president told the committee, he said: “I can’t tell you that.”

The committee is chaired by the Senate President who was not present at the Villa.

Other members of the committee are Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan; Chief Whip, Olusola Adeyeye; Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio; Danjuma Goje; Sam Anyanwu; Aliyu Wammako; Fatima Raji-Rasaki; and Oluremi Tinubu.