SENATORS of the Unity Forum, the group loyal to Senator Ahmad Lawan and the All Progressives Congress (APC), are said to have perfected a plot aimed at eventually ousting the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.
The APC had been uncomfortable with Ekweremadu’s emergence on June 9 as Deputy Senate President and had blamed its members in the Senate for allegedly selling out to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
President Muhammadu Buhari, at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of his party two weeks ago, insisted that he could not work with “enemies,” apparently referring to Ekweremadu occupying the Senate number two seat.
Members of the Unity Forum were said to have been further empowered after a recent visit to Aso Rock, where it was gathered that the plot to eventually oust Ekweremadu was discussed.
Sources close to the APC in Abuja, on Sunday, said the senators had decided to lie low on their opposition to the Deputy Senate President and to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
It was gathered that senators of the Unity Forum believed that the issue of leadership positions was almost settled in the Senate, with Saraki’s decision to resort to zonal caucuses rather than uphold the letter written to him by the APC.
Three of the leadership positions had been filled, while senators from the South-West zone were said to have met and agreed to recommend one of them to Saraki for appointment as majority chief whip.
With attention shifting to committee positions in the Senate, it would be seen that loyalists of the Unity Group might just lose out of the search for presiding officer positions.
It was, however, gathered that the lawmakers had decided to choose “an auspicious time” in the life of the eighth Senate to strike and get Ekweremadu “below the belt,” thereby securing the number two slot for one of them.
Sources said though the senators know that it would be an uphill task to secure the 73 senators needed to impeach either Ekweremadu or Saraki, they had decided to strike at a time when APC lawmakers would be in an overwhelming majority on the floor, especially when many PDP senators would have embarked on legislative assignments outside Abuja.
A source said the senators of Unity Forum would then rely on two thirds majority of senators on the floor to get at Ekweremadu.
“The deal is that contending forces should lie low for now and allow the Senate to commence its work and for legislative activities to start in earnest.
“On a day when only a few senators of the PDP are on the floor, the plot would be hatched in such a way that two thirds of those present would be relied upon to impeach the Deputy Senate President.
“There and then, a replacement from the APC lawmakers would be elected and that would condemn Ekweremadu to the courts. The case may not actually end till the end of the eighth Assembly,” a source in the know said.
When asked whether Saraki would be in the know of the plot, the source said the Senate president would be assured of his position, but firmly told that the only way to plough his way back to reckoning in the APC was to support the plot and sacrifice Ekweremadu.
It was gathered that the group pushing the agenda was mandated to ensure camaraderie returns to the Senate immediately, such that no one would have an inkling of the dangerous plot.
“The constitution actually indicates that the presiding officers can only be removed by two third majority of the lawmakers. But the way to go about it is to secure two thirds of those on the floor on a particular day and that should be enough to impeach Ekweremadu,” another source said.
Other sources, however, indicated that the main problem of the APC was Saraki and that the plot against Ekweremadu was a smokescreen.
The source said Saraki would find it difficult to play along with the plot, in view of the fact that whatever was applicable to the deputy Senate president was also applicable to him.
“The two presiding officers can only be removed by two thirds majority. If Saraki allows his deputy to go on the pretext of the number present at a sitting, he would be digging a huge grave for his office. I am sure he is aware of the danger of going into a secret plot with the APC,” a source in the National Assembly said.
Meanwhile, an Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Izu-Umunna Cultural Association and a think-tank of Ohanaeze Ndigbo have asked President Buhari and APC to accept the election of Senator Ekweremadu as deputy Senate president as the will of God.
The group, in its resolution at the end of its emergency meeting in Jos, Plateau State, said it would hold President Buhari and APC responsible should anything happen to Ekweremadu.
The group attributed what it described as distractions in the upper chambers of the National Assembly as “handiwork of politicians who desire that things should always go the way they want.”
- Tribune
