National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole said on Friday that the party will work for the impeachment of Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki in accordance with the law.
Addressing a news conference at the party’s headquarters in Abuja on Friday, the APC chairman said that since becoming the senate President, Saraki had never done anything with the interest of the nation at heart.
He accused Saraki of betraying the party to clinch the senate Presidency by entering into an alliance with the opposition party and offering them the position of the deputy Senate President.
Oshiomhole said: “We decided to call for this press conference basically to respond to issues raised by the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki during his press conference.
“It is important that we respond to some of the issues he canvassed so that the public is not misled into turning villains into heroes and twisting the facts that are not hidden to the Nigerian public. It is important that we help the Nigerian public by refreshing their memories.
“The senate President raised the issues of the fact that he has always acted not on the basis of his own personal interest, but that he has always acted on the basis of national interest. The truth is that it is doubtful if the senate president has ever acted either in the National, interest or in the interest of his own political party before his defection recently.
“Without going back to ancient history, it is important to look at how Senator Bukola Saraki became the President of the Senate. He decided, clearly, against the party position to enter into a deal with the opposition PDP and got a faction of the PDP, taking advantage of the provisions while majority of the APC senators were holding a meeting at the International conference Centre to resolve the issue of leadership of the senate and other principal officers that are expected to be produced by the ruling party with majority senators.
“By putting his personal interest over and above the interest of the party, he went into alliance with PDP and conceded the position of the deputy senate president to the opposition in other to obtain the support of the opposition for him to become the senate President.
“So, for the first time in our democratic history in Nigeria, we had a situation whereby, whereas the APC had majority of senators, it went on to elect a PDP person as deputy senate President. This action alone portray Senator Saraki for who he is and that his personal interest come before any other interest, including the National, interest and that of his political party.
“Having went into this unholy alliance with the opposition and mortgage the rights of the ruling party, he appointed opposition senators to Head strategic committees whose activities can affect either for good or for bad, the working of government and the relationship between the government and the legislature by grading away those strategic and sensitive positions.
“Senator Saraki did that in other to continue to protect himself against the wishes of his party as senate President. That showed that the only thing that was constant in his mind was to cling on to the position of senate president even if it is at the expense of his own party and the country.
“Even the media has consistently draw attention to how Saraki is managing the senate to the extent that questions have been raised as to whose interest the senate was serving.
“You do not have a partisan politician appreciate that in an election year, every democratic government around the world would do everything possible to ensure that it is seen to be working for the people of the country.
“Like any other political party in government, Nigerians expected the APC government under President Buhari to do everything possible this year to make up for lost time in terms of budget implementation and addressing critical infrastructures without which sustainable development is impossible.
“The senate under senator Saraki chose to delay the budget up to the end of the first half of the year and to coincide with the period of the rainy season such that those aspect of infrastructure such as roads cannot be constructed during the rainy season.
“These were not errors of the Head under his leadership, but clearly designed to frustrate the capacity of the government to address critical infrastructural deficit without which the ordinary man cannot feel the impact of governance.
“Again on receipt of the budget, the President cried out that it was a clear distortion from the well thought proposal that he submitted to them. He appreciated that while they can make alteration to the budget, he did not expect that it will be completely rewritten as to make far more provisions for recurrent expenditure with very little for capital projects. He said this budget will be difficult to implement.
“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.
“It is no longer a secret that as senate President, he tried to conspire with others to create a semblance of division within the ruling party having failed to truncate the convention, when they assembled a handful of people who were neither delegates nor contest for any office at the convention to purport to have formed a political party.
“There is nothing for me to add to the illegality of this action and the false foundation that Senator Saraki tried to leave than to adopt the well thought out presentation of Femi Falana.”
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