20 killed in Zamfara village mosque attack Expel Saraki, Dogara from APC - Sen Ibrahim ‘We will bar them from our functions’
Senate House President Bukola Saraki and of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara should quit the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) immediately or be expelled, Senator Abu Ibrahim has said.
The senator said the two have no business in APC since they had already sent their key loyalists to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
This is even as highly placed sources in the APC said that Saraki and Dogara should no longer attend any meetings of the party “since they have shown
The meeting, which started around 10.03pm at the Presidential Villa, was attended by 42 Senators, the National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, among others.
After the lawmakers introduced themselves journalists were excused. The meeting was still on as at the time the report was filed around 10.30pm.
Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina said the Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan, would speak on behalf of his colleagues and that the president would respond.
There was a mild drama when Senator Lanre Tejuoso (Ogun) arrived at the venue of the meeting. During introduction, he told the president that “Your son has returned home”. Tejuoso was one of the senators who announced their defection from APC to PDP on Tuesday.
The senators in attendance are: Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa), Bala Ibn Na’Allah (Kebbi), Kabiru Gaya (Kano), Adamu Aliero (Kebbi), Ibrahim Gobir (Sokoto), Andy Uba (Anambra), Andrew Uchendu (Rivers), Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (Niger), Shehu Sani (Kaduna), Mustapha Sani (Niger), Soji Akanbi, Jibrin Barau (Kano), Solomon Adeola (Lagos), John Enoh (Cross River), Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos) and Kabiru Marafa (Zamfara).
Others are Baba Kaka Bashir Garbai (Borno), Fatima Raji- Rasaki (Ekiti), Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta), Hope Uzodinma (Imo), Benjamin Uwajumogu (Imo), George Akume (Benue), Abdullahi Gumel (Jigawa), Yusuf Yusuf, Ali Ndume (Borno), Sabo Nakudu (Jigawa), David Umaru (Niger), Abu Ibrahim (Katsina), Abubakar Kyari (Borno), Gbenga Ashafa, Magnus Abe (Rivers), Nelson Effiong (Akwa Ibom), Ibrahim Kurfi (Katsina), among others.
Senator Ahmad Sani Yarima (Zamfara), and Senate Chief Whip Olusola Adeyeye (Osun) were among absent at the meeting.
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Sen. Ibrahim (APC, Katsina), who chairs the Senate Committee on Police Affairs, spoke to select journalists in Abuja yesterday on the heels of the defections of 14 APC senators and 37 members of the House of Representatives.
He said the defections would not affect the party’s chances in the 2019 elections.
“They should leave APC or APC should send them out because there is no need for them to stay. We know they’re not members of APC, and we won’t accept to be sitting with moles among ourselves.
“Both of them realised that if they leave, they’ll leave their positions. But we’re not fools. If the two senators from Kwara left APC for PDP and all members of the House of Representatives from Kwara left for PDP, what is Saraki doing in APC? He should leave and go back to PDP.
“I will recommend to the party to expel him from APC. Let us go the whole hog. Let’s draw the red line. He should leave APC today. We don’t want him; we’re being cured of cancer within the APC because all along they were undermining this government,” Senator Ibrahim, a pro-Buhari lawmaker, said. their heart
Chances of leaving APC high - Saraki
The Senate President Saraki had on Tuesday told the United Kingdom-based news agency Reuters in an interview that the chances of him also leaving the APC were “very, very high.”
PDP legislators in the green chamber had on Tuesday also asked Dogara to move over.
When contacted on whether Saraki would attend any APC meeting, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu said: ”That is an academic question and when we get to the bridge, we shall cross it. The votes and proceedings of yesterday’s sitting is there, and I believe it places everybody where he is.”
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‘Defectors Buhari’
Senator Ibrahim also alleged that senators loyal to Saraki had perfected plans to commence impeachment process against President Muhammadu Buhari today (Thursday) if not for counter plans by pro-Buhari lawmakers.
Asked if it was true that some of them loyal to Buhari were kept in a hotel preparatory to a leadership change in the Senate on Tuesday, Ibrahim said no such thing took place.
“I didn’t know anywhere somebody was kept. I slept in my house. I was here in the office, left at 2 o’clock, went to the party’s chairman office, and from there I came back here.
“But let me tell you, the other group was trying to impeach President Buhari.
“Of course we knew what they were planning and we wanted to stop them. That’s the reality. They realised it, and I think that’s what led to the abrupt closure of the National Assembly,” he said.
The senator also said that as the chairman of the police affairs committee, he was not aware of any police siege to Saraki’s residence, adding that “I was told that the siege did not take place.”
On the defections of the 14 senators that left the APC, the senator said it did not come to them as a surprise.
“The defections didn’t come to me as a shock. I have made analysis that at least 13 senators will go. I made a mistake. One that surprised me is that of Sokoto, that is [Ibrahim] Danbaba. I never put him as part of my calculation. I have said it’s avoidable,” he said.
The senator said those that left were loyal to Saraki.
“But the mistake they’re making, all of them, with the exception of the two senators from Kwara is that politics is local. Nobody will say Nazif was voted because of Saraki; nobody will say Isa Misau was elected because of Saraki. It is because of Buhari.”
They’ll no longer attend our meeting - APC
Credible APC sources spoke to Daily Trust last night on why Saraki and Dogara should no longer attend the party’s meetings. “They are not APC members and therefore cannot be part of our meetings any longer; their body and soul have gone for good,” one of the sources said.
“In fact they would not even attempt to come because they would be disgraced; of course it has dawned on some of the senators and House of Reps members that left that they have committed the greatest blunders of their lives,” he said.
Senator Ibrahim had also corroborated this assertion saying, “As major stakeholders in the APC, we would henceforth not allow the likes of Saraki to attend any of our meetings because they are moles.”
Another source however said that a meeting held on Tuesday between SGF Boss Mustapha, APC chairman Adams Oshiomhole and other stakeholders resolved to talk to some APC governors to reach out to some legislators with genuine grievances.
“It was agreed that some governors would concede to some demands so that some of the legislators that left would come back while those planning to go would shelve the idea,” he said.
Daily Trust also gathered last night that an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the party would be convened in the coming days to endorse the possible expulsion of Saraki, Dogara as well as “other moles.”
Oshiomhole had while speaking to State House correspondents described those who left as “mercenaries” APC just to win election.
Discipline: What constitution states APC
Article 21 of the APC Constitution on ‘Discipline of Party Members’ grants the executive committee of the party at all levels the power to punish erring members subject to the provisions of the Article and the right of fair hearing.
Some of the offences that may attract punishment include anti-party activities or any conduct likely to embarrass or have effect on the party or bring the party into hatred, contempt, ridicule, or disrepute; any act of impersonation of the party offices or its holders; fictionalization or creating parallel party organs at any level; as well as filing an action in a Court of Law against the party or any of its officers on any matters relating to the discharge of the duties of the party without first exhausting all avenues for redress provided for in the constitution among others.
Some of the sanctions against erring members include reprimand, censure, fine, debarment from holding party office, removal from party office, suspension from party office, expulsion from party office, and debarment from contesting office on the party platform.