A divided Nigerian Senate on Thursday denied plotting to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari, days after its members hinted that the plan was afoot as a response to an executive the senate sees as becoming increasingly disrespectful to it.
The senate said reports of such plot were untrue and a “piece of fabrication which is only the figment of the imagination of the writers and their sponsors”.
But PREMIUM TIMES has been authoritatively informed that discussions about the impeachment of the president took place.
The senate’s refutation was in response to a statement by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, which warned on Wednesday that reports of impeachment threats during a closed-door senate session on Tuesday, amounted to “a joke taken too far”.
The APC, in a statement by its national secretary, Mala Buni, had asked the Senators “to stop this huge joke and concentrate on their primary constitutional responsibilities of lawmaking and discharging of their legislative mandates to their constituents at the National Assembly”.
But in its reaction Thursday, the senate, though its spokesperson, Aliyu Abdullahi, expressed surprise that the leadership of APC “made comments on mere speculation and fabrication by an online publication on a purported plan to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari when it had all the opportunity to cross-check what actually happened at the executive session which held on Tuesday from its members in attendance”.
He said the Senate expected the party to at least explore all the options open to it to verify that “piece of fabrication which is only the figment of the imagination of the writers and their sponsors”.
Had the story been true, Mr. Abdullahi argued, it should not have been credited to anonymous source.
“It should be clear to the APC leadership that if there is any truth to that story, it should have been credited to a particular Senator who was at the executive session.
“It is evident from our proceedings of yesterday (Wednesday) that the Senate itself was shocked that such a fabrication which constitute a breach of the privileges of the Senators was published and that was why we mandated our committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to investigate the source and circumstances leading to the emergence of such a fabrication,” he said.
He further urged the party to “always kindly” seek to find out the truth about any statement, issue or development in the National Assembly before taking a public position as the comment by the party can “further create tension and give a wrong impression, particularly when it is not founded on genuine or factual ground.”
“We will like to assure the party that the Senate as an institution values the present democracy in our country and will not do anything that will undermine or weaken the system,” Mr. Abdullahi added.
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