Saraki Loyalists Plans to Rubish Buhari’s Ministerial List

Members of the Senate Unity Forum had started wooing  Saraki loyalists, mainly in the opposition the Peoples Democratic Party.

PIC.14.THE SENATE PRESIDENT, BUKOLA SARAKI USING THE GAVEL AT THE INAUGURATION OF THE 8TH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY IN ABUJA
ON TUESDAY (9/6/15).WITH HIM ARE SENATORS DINO MELAIYE (M) AND SANI YERIMA
3014/9/6/2015/CH/BJO/NAN

According to the Saturday Punch, the SUF members are arguing that the ongoing trial of the Senate President at the Code of Conduct Tribunal was a dent on the image of the Senate.

The SUF decided to reach out to their rivals as they need two-thirds of Senators to impeach Saraki.

PDP has 49 Senators while APC has 59, excluding Senator Zannah who died.

On June 6, 57 out of 108 senators reportedly voted for Saraki.
This means that the SUF, which wants Senator Ahmed Lawan to emerge as Senate President, needs 21 more members to achieve victory.

But members of the group from the South-West geopolitical zone, told Punch that the SUF will soon hit the 73 figure.

He said, “We know that getting the required figure to carry out an impeachment at the moment would be a herculean task, but honestly we hope to achieve it very soon. Already there has been a serious move to get our former party members who are with Saraki now back to our camp.

“I can also confirm to you that we have the support of about 12 Peoples Democratic Party senators who are ready to support any move against Saraki. Don’t forget that some ranking PDP senators are still aggrieved over the emergence of freshers as their principal officers.”

Another source said the group was in a race against time to save President Muhammadu Buhari from facing embarrassment when he finally sends his ministerial list.

According to him, Saraki’s loyalists, in retaliation to his predicament, had decided to ridicule the list.

“We learnt that the like minds senators are already working on some of their supporters in the PDP camp to reject the ministerial list by refusing to screen them but we are also ready for them. I won’t disclose our strategy for now.”

It was also gathered that the SUF members were also working on a political solution to execute its agenda.

He said, “We know that he might want to give conditions like a settlement of his CCT case out of court, withdrawing of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission charges against his wife and an end to his former manager’s trial for alleged fraud at the Société Générale Bank. We could help him in this regard to have a soft landing and avoid disgrace.”

Part of the strategy, the source added, would include sponsoring of a motion by a member of the group to draw the attention of the red chamber to the trial of Saraki and plead with him to save himself from unnecessary distraction by stepping aside for adequate concentration at the tribunal.

He said, “Nigerians should not see the on-going trial of the senate president as a witch-hunt, rather, they should rather try and find out whether it was true that he included a multi – million dollar property he bought in 2006 as part of his assets in 2003.

“We should stop playing politics with everything in this country. The mantra of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is anti – corruption and it will not be proper to have a morally deficient person presiding over the affairs of the legislature, being a critical arm of government.

“The prosecution counsel had promised to shock Nigerians with the revelations of witnesses who had testified against the senate president at the CCT. The implication of this is that all the charges were not fabricated or invented to spite him. He should therefore go and face his trial.”

Punch