By Freedom Sunrise News
Yesterday,
July 23, 2018,President of the senate and his deputy, Bukola Saraki and Ike
Ekweremadu respectively, had gotten hints of the plan to impeach them the next
day, being today, Tuesday July 24, 2018 and install Yobe state senator, Ahmed
Lawan as the Senate President.
However, unknown to the plotters of the
‘coup’, Saraki and Ekweremadu have become veterans of such political games.
They foiled the ‘coup’ and in a counter, effected a change in the composition
of the Senate, handing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a majority lead with the
defection of 15 All Progressives Congress (APC) senators.
Within two hours after the Senators jumped
ship, 33 House of Representatives members also announced that they were dumping
the APC, making a total of 48 lawmakers who defected from the ruling APC within
hours.
Among those that defected are Senator Lanre
Tejuoso (Ogun), ShaabaLafiagi (Kwara), Barnabas Gemade (Benue), Dino Melaye
(Kogi), Soji Akanbi (Oyo), Rafiu Ibrahim (Kwara), Shitu Ubale(Jigawa), Isa
Misau (Bauchi), Sulaiman Hunkuyi (Kaduna), Monsurat Sunmonu (Oyo), Ibrahim
Danbaba (Sokoto), Bayero Nafada (Gombe), Suleiman Nazif (Bauchi), Rabiu
Kwankwaso (Kano) and Abdulazeez Murtala-Nyako (Adamawa).
Information gathered show that to make the
‘coup’ effective, the Police and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) were deployed.
According to findings, the Police was to
invite Saraki for an interview over his alleged linkage to the Offa Bank
robbery while the EFCC was to bring Ekweremadu in, at the same time, for
questioning in an investigation into alleged abuse of office and money
laundering by the EFCC against him.
The Police had issued a summon to Saraki on
Monday July 23 inviting him for questioning while the EFCC also invited
Ekweremadu to come over to its headquarters for questioning. Both were asked to
report at different times.
The EFCC letter inviting Ekweremadu for
questioning was dated July 24, 2018 and had reference number
CR.3000/EFCC/DOPS/VOL. 49/40 and titled ‘Investigation Activities Case of
Conspiracy, Abuse of Office and Money Laundering’. It was signed by Mohammed
Umar Abba listed as Director of Operations.
While the Police asked Saraki to meet with its
investigators at 8am, EFCC asked Ekweremadu to come over at 10am. However, a
siege was laid on their residence even before the time they were expected to
report.
Insider sources at both agencies told our
correspondent that the plot was to detain the two if they honoured the
invitation.
According to the source, Saraki and Ekweremadu
were to be detained till evening, to ensure they did not have access to their
office while the impeachment was perfected.
To perfect the plot, Senator Lawan and the
group of Senators involved, were made to assemble at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel
from where they were to be driven in a bus to the Senate to effect the change.
However, the plot failed as Saraki and
Ekweremadu played a fast one and gained access to the Senate even while the
Police were laying siege at their residences.
Although the police have denied ever
officially deploying it’s officials to lay siege on Saraki and Ekeremadu’s
residences, our sources at the National Assembly indicated that Policemen were
posted to the gate of the National Assembly to ensure that senators loyal to
Saraki’s leadership do not gain access, but the senators, including Saraki,
however entered the senate using an alternative entrance.
According to our source, the Police was
embarrassed when they learnt that Saraki had entered the Senate chambers with
loyalists even before the arrival of Senator Lawan and his group.
Saraki’s Response To Police Invitation
The Senate President had in response to the
invitation by the Police, dismissed it as “a mere afterthought which is
designed to achieve political purpose”.
Abaribe Reacts to Siege On Ekweremadu
Reacting to the siege laid on the residence of
the Deputy senate President, Chairman of the Southeast Caucus of the Senate,
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe said Nigeria was up to a dictatorship that is
unprecedented in modern democracy.
Speaking in a statement released shortly after
the siege, Abaribe, who himself had been clamped down on by the Buhari
administration recently, said: “This dangerous route is unprecedented in modern
democracy. It is a sinister plot to throw the country back to the dark age of
military dictatorship. Too bad for our unity as a country”.
Abaribe warned that silence in this
circumstance, could sound a death knell on the already challenged unity of
Nigeria saying “this is the time to speak up against the directorship and
tyranny of executive arm of government against the parliament.”
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