- Awaits police report on allegedly forged Rule Book
- Rebuffs OBJ, Abdusalami’s intervention
CRISIS rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus in the National Assembly is not about to abate, following indications that President Muhammadu Buhari has drawn the battle line with the leadership of the Senate and has decided to hand the fate if his relationship with it on the outcome of police investigations into the alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Orders 2015 as amended.
Senator Kabir Marafa, a member of the Senate Unity Forum (SUF), loyal to the APC and Senator Ahmad Lawan, had alleged in June, shortly before the Senate went on recess, that the Senate Standing Orders was doctored just before the inauguration of the National Assembly on June 9.
Though his point of order was shut down by Senate President Bukola Saraki. The issue has refused to die down ever since.
Another member of the SUF, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, has petitioned the police three weeks ago, alleging forgery to the Senate Standing Orders 2015.
The contention of the senators was that the 2015 Rule Book was markedly different from the 2011 version used by the Seventh Senate, even when there was no documentation of any amendment carried through in the life of the last Senate.
Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who responded to Marafa on the floor had said that the Rule Book used for the Seventh Senate died with that Senate and that the management of the National Assembly produced the new one for adoption of the Senate.
But information at our disposal indicates that Buhari, who has refused to host the Senate President and the Speaker in the Presidential villa ever since they emerged, has vowed not to see the presiding officers until the issue of the alleged forgery was resolved.
Buhari had, in recent times, met with leaders of the Senate Unity Forum and the group loyal to Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila in the House of Representatives.
Sources told our correspondent that the president took the decision not to receive, especially the Senate President, following allegations by members of the Senator Lawan’s group that the Rule Book was doctored.
It was gathered that the Presidency was closely monitoring the probe of the matter by the police, which had words with the Clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa, last week.
It was also gathered that the president had so far rejected pleas from a former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and a former Head of State, General Abdusalami Abubakar, on the issue.
The duo were said to have sent words to Buhari to meet with the leadership of the National Assembly and ask those aggrieved against their election to keep on pursuing the matter.
It was, however, gathered that Buhari had stuck to his guns and insisted that his relationship with Saraki and the Senate would be defined by the outcome of the investigations by the police.
Buhari has already made history as the first Nigerian leader to fail to host the leadership of the National Assembly immediately after its emergence.
A source said that Buhari’s position had been communicated to leaders of the APC, who were also aggrieved against the Senate leadership, as well as its House counterparts.
