Like the village drunk seeking to pawn off the ancestral shrine to purchase a bottle of beer, Niyi Adebayo is one of those who attempted to derail democracy. As was in the dark days of the military junta, so it was about to be
this morning when one of the Nigeria’s strongest democratic institutions came under intense threat and
imminent destruction when black hood wearing men of the Department of State Service stormed the National Assembly to force the removal of Bukola Saraki as the Senate President, under the supervision of the National Chairman of the All Peoples Congress, Adams Oshiomhole and the Deputy Chairman, Adeniyi Adebayo.
According to information exclusively gathered, the day had hardly broken when the duo of Oshiomhole and Adebayo, former governors of Edo and Ekiti respectively summoned a meeting with a group of senators purportedly against the present leadership of the Senate. The agenda was to drive the nail into the coffin of the impeachment of Bukola Saraki who rode on the back of the APC to emerge the Senate President, and Ike Ekweremadu as his deputy.
An inconclusive meeting had earlier been held yesterday at instance of the APC leaders. It was recorded at the meeting that to change leadership of the Senate, total of 74 Senators which is 2/3 will be needed and with APC sure of only about 51 to 53 Senators and a good number of the APC Senators out of the country, it will be impossible to get the required number.
According to a source privy to the events, Oshiomhole was mandated to contact President Buhari to inform him about their inability to garner the number required but with green light from him, they could go ahead to force the plan through. President Buhari could not be reached by Oshiomhole throughout yesterday. Attempts to reach Mr. President resumed this morning, also to no avail.
Another knotty issue the APC leaders failed to sort among themselves was their inability to reach a consensus on who should replace the Bukola Saraki between Ahmed Lawan and George Akume. There were strong arguments against picking Lawan since he and Speaker Dogara are from the same political zone, while other Senators mostly from the North West strongly oppose having Hope Uzodinma whom one of the Senators referred to as “corruption personified” as the deputy Senate President.
The invasion of the National Assembly very early today was said to have been sanctioned by Oshiomhole and Adeniyi when Saraki eventually convened sitting. According to the plot, the APC senators would force the impeachment with the full presence while only a few senators of the Peoples Democratic Party would be allowed in to form a quorum.
Few senators who felt the move might boomerang advised Oshiomhole to shelve the idea, that it would be best to go ahead with the leadership meeting of resolving the pending National Issues, then later look for ways to perfect the impeachment, but the party chairman and few others were of the opinion that the impeachment must happen within next 48 hours or they should forget it.
The feeble attempt at the kangaroo impeachment has claimed its first casualty with the immediate sack of the highly influential and powerful Director-General of the DSS, Lawal Daura, by the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo. Information has it the sack has the approval of the President who is on vacation in London.
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