on the election of the Senate President and his deputy.
Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu has been invited for
questioning - an action that has drawn the ire of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP).
Inspector General of Police Solomon Arase asked Ekweremadu to report
at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, to answer questions on a petition
said to have been filed against him by a group of senators detailing
how he unilaterally tinkered with certain provisions of the Senate
Standing Rules.
The petitioners were said to have alleged that Ekweremadu had taken
undue advantage of the rules to become the Deputy Senate President in
the June 9 election of principal officers of the National Assembly.
The election was to have been by voice vote,The Nationlearnt. But
ballot was used —against the rules, which Ekweremadu said had been
adjusted.
Opponents of his election claim that there was no sitting to ammend
the rules throughout the four years of the last Senate.
In Abuja yesterday, PDP National Publicity Secretary Olisa Metuh said
the said amendment to the rule was effected by the bureaucracy of the
National Assembly headed by the Clerk, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa.
Metuh said the invitation from the IGP was a build-up to phantom
charges with a view to arresting and incarcerating Ekweremadu and pave
the way for the imposition of a preferred APC senator to take his
position.
The party accused certain unnamed All Progressives Congress (APC)
leaders of instigating the police action against Ekweremadu, adding
that the party had uncovered threats to the life of the Deputy Senate
President and other key PDP leaders.
"Since President Muhammadu Buhari's statement that Senator
Ekweremadu's election was 'unacceptable' to his party, the Deputy
Senate President, who can only be removed by the Senate, has come
under threats and intense pressure from APC leaders to resign and
allow a senator from the ruling party to take his position.
"However, having failed to get him to resign, the APC has now engaged
in heinous plots to force him out of office, a design which totally
negates the independence of the legislature and the spirit and letters
of the constitution of Nigeria.
"Apparently to ensure that the agenda is given an official stamp, the
Inspector General of Police, acting on instructions, has invited the
Deputy Senate President with a view to arresting him over phantom
charges as a build-up to incarcerate him, create a vacuum in the
Senate and pave the way for the imposition of APC preferred senator to
take over his position.
"We are aware that some APC senators opposed to the emergence of
Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as Senate President and
Deputy Senate President, met last week and concocted a petition
accusing the Deputy Senate President of altering the Senate Rules on
the process of election of the Presiding Officers, upon which the
police, via a letter dated July 1, 2015 and signed by the Deputy
Inspector General of Police in charge of criminal investigation at the
Force Headquarters has invited him to appear on Monday, July 6, 2015
where he will be detained and put under pressure.
"Apart from the fact that the Nigerian Constitution clearly guarantees
the two chambers of the National Assembly the powers to regulate their
proceedings without external interferences, we note that the petition
by this group of senators who enjoy the sympathy of some APC leaders,
lacks merit as Senator Ekweremadu or any other senator-elect prior to
the inauguration of the Senate and the election of presiding officers,
could not have been involved in the process of producing the 2015
Standing Rules of the Senate which was strictly done by the
bureaucracy under the Clerk to the National Assembly.
"Furthermore, Senator Ekweremadu was not in any way involved in the
process other than being nominated for the position of the Deputy
Senate President and could not have been privy to the secret ballot
procedure adopted by the National Assembly bureaucracy, which has been
widely adjudged as transparent and credible".
The PDP also alleged that besides using security apparatus against the
Deputy Senate President, the party had information that there were
instructions to certain officials at the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) to alter some electoral documents and
records in order to create the impression that Ekweremadu failed to
file proper documents for the general elections to eventually pave way
for his removal.
—TheNation
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