‘Most APC senators back Buhari’s impeachment’ – Lawmakers tackle Presidency

Senators who staged a walkout during Wednesday’s plenary at the Upper Legislative Chambers insist they have the numbers needed to effect the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari, in response to claims by the Presidency that the group lacked the capacity to carry out such action.

According to the senators, most of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers are also part of the movement to remove President Buhari over the worsening insecurity situation across the country, and his failure to address key security issues affecting Nigeria.

It would be recalled that senators from across many party lines, Wednesday, staged a walkout during plenary over worsening insecurity in the country.

Addressing journalists at the Senate Press Corps (SPC) Centre, immediately after the walkout, spokesperson for the senators, the Minority Leader, Senator Philip Aduda (PDP-FCT), said they have resolved to give President Buhari a six-week ultimatum within which to end the insecurity in the country or face impeachment.

The senators who reportedly walk out on plenary were heard chanting ‘Buhari must go’, as they trooped out of the senate chambers.

“It is obvious that Abuja, the seat of the Federal government is no longer safe, as you all can see.

“We went into a closed-door session on the state of insecurity in Abuja and took cognisance that Nigeria is no longer safe.

“Senate has recommended various measures and discovered that even Abuja is no longer safe.

“We agreed in the closed session that we will give President Muhammadu Buhari an ultimatum, but the Senate President Dr Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan didn’t want us to raise the issue.

“However, we have issued six weeks for President Buhari to resolve insecurity or be impeached.

“We walked out of Chambers in protest.”

According to Senator Aduda, the various recommendations by the lawmakers have been made but security challenges have not abated, which he added, now compels them commence impeachment proceedings against President Buhari now.

Aduda who represents the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) said the ultimatum to Buhari was for him to resolve the heightened insecurity in the country or face impeachment.

It was learnt that at the commencement of the plenary on Tuesday, the lawmakers had questioned the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, on why the issue of insecurity was not in the Order Paper.

The aggrieved senators further expressed anger that Lawan refused to abide by their resolution after reverting to plenary after the closed-door session.

They insisted they had during their closed-door session which lasted for two hours agreed that they should debate the issue of insecurity and give Buhari an impeachable ultimatum notice.

Co-incidentally, after thwarting the senators move to initiate impeachment proceedings against Buhari, the senate president, Lawan ruled for a seven-week recess by the Upper Chambers.

However, reacting to the senators move to impeach Buhari and the issuance of a six-week ultimatum for the President to resolve he insecurity situation in the country, the Presidency, the Senior Special Adviser to the Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, dismissed the ultimatum to his principal as ‘just bragado,’ even as he called the lawmakers ‘anarchists.’

Adesina featuring on Channels TV programme, Wednesday evening, said the ‘merely members of the PDP caucus in the Senate are just wasting the country’s time with their flippant ultimatum and threat to impeach President Buhari.’

”The truth is that in this kind of scenario, minority will have its say while the majority will have its way. You know the configuration of the National Assembly, the Configuration of the Senate. Those who spoke today are the minority of minorities. They will have their say as it is needful in a democracy but it will not go beyond that.

“I think it was just Bragado. Very sadly security is not something you subject to Bragado and you don’t begin to issue flippant ultimatum for something that is a matter of life and death. They know in their heart of hearts that they cannot achieve what they are saying. They are just wasting the country’s time, wasting the time of the upper chamber of the National Assembly. They know they can’t achieve it.

”It could also be that the terrorists knew that you were going to amplify their threats and that was they made those threats. They know that the media would amplify what they were going to say. Like it is said, the oxygen that the terrorist needs is the media. It is publicity. You are giving them that oxygen and that was why they made those threats.”

“Some of those lawmakers are anarchist. Instead of mollifying the situation in the country, instead of talking sensibly, instead of appealing to the positive sentiments of Nigerians, they are stoking the fire. They are anarchists. The news we have for them is that many more Nigerians are positive than the anarchist we have in the system.

”Some of the lawmakers who spoke said what is going to happen is going to be worse than EndSARS. The question is is EndSARS something anybody should link with Nigeria?

“Any SARS was anarchy, EndSARS was carnage, cannibalism, it was all that was wrong with the society. Now for anybody whether labour leader or not to say what is coming will be worse than EndSARS, that person is an anarchist.

”The National Assembly is so composed that minor cannot have their way. They cannot force this down the throat on the majority. Unfortunately, in the two chambers, we have sensible people who would say Yes we have a challenge of security in the country, the President is doing his best, it is being addressed, let us continue to encourage Security agencies to even do better.

“The President is not coming to wave a magic wand and solve this problem. Nobody has that magic wand. It is something that will be done methodologically, systemically. It is not going to be by a magic wand. “There is no magic wand to solve this kind of problem,” Adesina said.

Also, in a message issued on Wednesday night, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said there was no need for such ultimatum by the senators, as he commended the Senate President Lawan, who presided over the plenary for stopping a motion of impeachment by the Senators.

“The performative and babyish antics of those senators staging a walk-out notwithstanding, Senate President Ahmad Lawan’s refusal on Wednesday to entertain the ridiculous motion to impeach our President was quite appropriative and correct.

“Rather than making a mockery out of voters by trying to imitate what they see in America, the opposition would be well advised that their time would be better spent tackling the pressing issues Nigerians face, such as the current global cost of living crisis.

“Their continued failure to do so goes some way to explaining why they remain in opposition.”

Shehu noted that President Buhari has done his best in addressing security challenges in the country.

“In contrast, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is committed to finding lasting solutions to the emerging security threats, including those left behind by the PDP in the South-South, the Northeast and throughout the federation. In the last 24 hours, two more Chibok girls were freed, in addition to the three brought home last week.

“These kinds of headline-grabbing stunts for which the opposition is now well known serve no one, least of all their constituents. We would respectfully remind them that it is those same constituents that they were elected to serve, and are paid to do so with public money.

“We would welcome their collaboration in our efforts to solve the problems Nigerians face on a daily basis. No one is asking them to waste their time attempting to impeach a democratically elected President at the end of his second term – certainly not their constituents.

“They should ask themselves: do they want to be in government or do they want to be in the headlines? If they want to be in government they should start acting like it and stop undermining Nigerian voters,” he added.

In response to Presidency’s dismissal of their threat to Buhari, the senators have, however, insisted they have all it takes to impeach the President, including the numbers and support of their colleagues from even the ruling APC.

Speaking, Wednesday, immediately after the walkout, Senator Francis Fadahunsi (PDP-Osun East), Senator Francis Fadahunsi, told reporters that some APC lawmakers supported the impeachment move and that the remaining would join the majority when the Senate resumes from the long vacation.

“Remember I moved this motion two years ago that this President could offer nothing and that he should step aside. But the APC then, floating in the Atlantic Ocean didn’t understand what I was saying. Now that the dangerous Atlantic Ocean is sweeping them and they have overtaken even Abuja, they are gradually seeing reasons.

“We decided at a close door session that an impeachment notice should be passed on him, but because somebody is still busy trying to protect his job, it was not possible.

“Today, during the executive meeting, all of us agreed, that the man should be served an impeachment notice. Almost all the APC Senators conceded that the man should be served, except a few.

“By the time we come back, that is, if all of us will come back; that is, if some of us are not inflicted by the insecurity; we would all come together, regardless of our political affiliations and ask that he should go.

“The soldiers are busy making money. The Generals are busy acquiring houses. Some of them do not even know what to do with the money, some of them are building universities and hotels.

“Each time we invite them, they always complain of a shortage of funds and we would always approve money for them. So, they have now acquired much money.

“All the people causing these issues, have you heard that anyone was arrested? The few ones arrested were also blown out of Kuje prisons and are now causing more mayhem. These people know exactly what they are doing.

“If the man in power is not ejected out of Aso Villa, the way things are going, this country would slide into militocracy and the democracy we all laboured for would erode us.

“The Commander of his Brigade Command has been killed. About 30 soldiers under him cannot be found. If he goes and someone comes in, the person would understand the language.

“At a point, El-Rufai who was part of those who brought them came out openly and confessed that the only way to eliminate them is to attack their hideouts and kill all of them, including those who are mediating. But who will give the order?

“So, someone that cannot give order for this clampdown should take a leave and allow another person to come in.

“By the time the Senate resumes, we shall sanitise the system and speak in one voice,” Fadahunsi, who also serves as Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Customs and Trades and Investment, said.

Corroborating, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (APGA-Abia-South), the former senate Minority Leader, while responding to the Presidency’s comments, disclosed that most of the APC senators are with them on the move to impeach Buhari.

“I think that some people also sat in Abuja and said that it’s impossible for these insurgents to move from the Northeast. Where are we today?

“It’s very wrong for any person to say you don’t have the number. That’s not true. Most of the APC senators are with us. And at the point at which it starts, that is when Nigerians will know almost every senator is fed up.

“Do we wait until this administration crushes the country or do we take action to prevent it?”

This week alone, terrorists have wreaked havoc on satellite communities of the federal Capital Territory, and even as close as Abuja, the seat of political power.

On Sunday, over 16 soldiers attached to the Brigade of Guards were presumably killed in an ambush while responding to a distress call from the Nigerian Law School in Bwari area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Over three died on the spot, including the unit’s commander.

It is believed that nearly 30 troops may have lost their lives or suffered injuries in the attack.

A day later, the Federal Government Unity College also in Bwari was forced to shut down after terrorists attacked two nearby villages sharing perimeter with the school. The development also prompted the FCT authorities to close all public primary and secondary schools for fear of attack by the terrorists.

Other attacks by the terrorists occurred in nearby Kaduna State, as well as twice in Ondo State; one at the police headquarters in Akure where a policeman was killed on Monday, and another in Owo, on Wednesday, which is the second attack under seven weeks.