Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Wednesday,
insisted that he knows nothing about how the rules adopted in the inauguration
of the 8th Senate on June 9, 2015 was formulated.
He said the on-going efforts to drag him into a case of
forgery before the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, were
orchestrated to frustrate him.
Saraki, in a statement by his Special Adviser, Media and
Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, stated that he was not part of the leadership of
the 7th Senate that made the rules in question and that prior to his unanimous
election as Senate President on June 9, 2015, he was merely a Senator-elect
like all his colleagues, and therefore, was not in a position to influence the
rules that were used in the conduct of the election.
“The Police in their investigation were conscious that the
incumbent Senate President was not in office prior to June 9, 2015 and that was
why in their letters inviting some individuals for their investigation, they
only mentioned officers of the 7th Senate. The last of the letters was written
to the Clerk of the National Assembly on June 7, 2016 and he was not among those
invited.
“Those who decided to smuggle the name of the Senate
President into the charge sheet after the fact knew perfectly well that only
the leadership of the 7th Senate were invited for investigation. But they
needed to implicate him in keeping with their declared vow to ensure that even
if their current efforts to nail him through the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT)
fails, they would find other ways to carry out their vendetta.
“This so-called forgery case is another wanton abuse of the
judicial process and making a mockery of the institution of justice. As the
Senate earlier stated, the sponsors of this plot are not only gunning for Dr.
Saraki, what they have just launched with this latest antics is a grand
onslaught on the foremost institution of our democracy. The only institutional
difference between dictatorship and democracy is the presence of the
legislature. Therefore, by seeking to cripple the National Assembly, they have
declared a war on our hard-won democracy and aimed for the very jugular of our
freedom.”
“Let us restate the fact that the Senators who initiated the
Police investigation in the first place had raised the same matter on the floor
and were overwhelmingly overruled. They also filed a civil suit and were told
by the court that neither the judiciary nor the executive can interfere in the
internal affairs of the legislative arm.
“The Senate President recognizes the sundry problems
bedeviling our nation today – food insecurity, devaluation of the Naira,
inflation, unemployment, failing national infrastructure, insurgency in the
North-eastern part of the country, restiveness in the oil producing areas, and
general insecurity, among others – and believes that finding solutions to them
should be the priority, at this period, for every individual in government, not
the pursuit of narrow political objectives. That is why these needless
distractions will do nobody any good. In fact, it will not help in delivering
on the promise of bringing positive change to the lives of our people who voted
for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last elections.
“The Senate President does not see what value this current
attempt to shut down the Senate by dragging its presiding officers before a
court for a phantom allegation of forgery will add to the attempts to solve the
problems confronting the nation.
“Dr. Saraki will, however, explore all legal options
necessary to ward off this fresh case of persecution and distraction”, the
statement added.
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