Senators backing Saraki vow to resist Senate President’s impeachment

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Senators in support of Bukola Saraki’s leadership of the Nigerian Senate on Wednesday vowed to resist every attempt to impeach their leader.

Mr. Saraki is facing a 13-count charge of alleged false asset declaration levelled against him by the Code of Conduct Bureau.

The senators who were represented by Senators Rafiu Ibrahim and Samuel Anyanwu, representing Kwara South and Imo East respectively told journalists on the sidelines of the tribunal sitting that they consider Mr. Saraki’s trial as an attempt by the leading All Progressives Congress to blacklist him before the Nigerian masses.

“We have since discovered that the trial of the senate president is a mere attempt to blackmail him and make him look bad in the court of public opinion,” Senator Ibrahim said. “No more, no less. A dispassionate analysis of the proceeding of the CCT yesterday has pointed to the fact that the APC-led executive is still embittered against Dr Saraki over the manner of his election as senate president.”

The senators, who were 12 in number at the Code of Conduct Tribunal on Wednesday, said regardless of its outcome, the trial of Mr. Saraki would be subject to other statutory procedure for the impeachment of Nigeria’s Senate President.
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“For those calling for the impeachment of the senate president, we urge them to avail themselves of the provisions of the law relating to such a sensitive step. They will have to produce as many as 100 senators to achieve that aim. As long as they don’t have the majority, the call is a tall dream that will remain a figment of the imagination of the groups and their sponsors,” the senators said.

During the previous sitting Mr. Saraki was accompanied by as much as 80 senators.

On Wednesday he was accompanied to court by just eight senators, including Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.