Saraki’s time is over as Senate President ― Oshiomhole
Adams Oshiomhole
Adams Oshiomhole
NATIONAL Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC) Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, on Friday declared that the time is up for Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki to relinquish his position as the Senate President, noting that he would be impeached accordingly if he failed to resign.
Addressing a news conference in Abuja, Comrade Oshiomhole said that before Senator Saraki defected to the main opposition People Democratic Party (PDP), his leadership of the Senate was designed to frustrate President Muhammadu Buhari’s efforts to deliver on his electoral promises.
According to him, “So, when I said he has never put the interest of Nigeria first, I support this statement by reference to the deliberate delay of the budget and deliberate manipulation of the provisions in the budget in a way that will compromise the capacity of the government to address critical infrastructures.
On the need for the Senate President to leave the Senate Presidency, Comrade Oshiomhole said, “He will not only be impeached, we will work hard to have him defeated as a senator in his own Senatorial zone come 2019 by the people of Kwara state who are fed up with Saraki.
He added that “If he thinks that by saying that he will prevent the APC from having him impeached, he is deceiving himself. I think that the time of Saraki is over, the way he has manipulated the politics of Kwara state, he failed to understand that the Nigerian project is far more complicated than being at the mercy of his own dynasty”.
On the electoral value of the Senate President, the APC National Chairman said that “Go and check the results of the elections that made him a senator and you will find out that the President got more votes from Kwara central than Saraki got for himself. So, he can’t claim that the vote the APC got from his Senatorial zone was because of him.
“And that is why his decamping from APC is of no political consequences as far as electoral issues are concerned. We tried to talk to him, not out of fear, but out of conviction that as a presiding officer, there are rules of engagement and we don’t want him to get so emotional as to affect those rules of engagements”, he stated.
Speaking on the need for Senate to reconvene and approve the budget of INEC, Oshiomhole said: “Between Tuesday and Thursday, the Senate was expected to discuss the supplementary budget for INEC. INEC requirement are not things that you buy from the shelf. You have to order them from the manufacturers and so, time is of the essence. But the Senate under Saraki adjourned without considering the matters before it including the budget for INEC.
“So, if Saraki adjourned the Senate ahead of schedule to resume towards the end of nominations, can that act be said to coincide with national interest? If you decide to frustrate INEC by denying it the funds that it requires, can you be said to be a defender of democracy? If INEC don’t get their funds and therefore are unable to conduct t credible election, will that not lead to further consequences for our democracy?”, he queried.