There are strong indications that the Presidency may covertly be planning to finally pull the rug off the feet of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, over what has been seen as an affront in the rejection of nominees for certain offices, generally regarded as President Muhammadu Buhari’s personal nominees.
Towards this end, the Presidency, according to competent sources, is taking a fresh look at the circumstances surrounding the importation of a N298 million Range Rover bullet-proof SUV with fake papers; the circumstances surrounding the emergence of Saraki and Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively and the alleged false declaration of asset allegation against the Senate President, to prepare ground for the duo’s impeachment.
Recall that twice within three months, a nominee of the Presidency for the chairmanship of the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, was denied confirmation by the Senate, which premised its decision on security reports from the office of the Directorate of the State Security Services, which said that Magu was not suitable to hold any public office.
The head of the anti-graft agency had successfully prosecuted many sleazy politicians and other financial crimes offenders.
The Senate has been accused of using what has come to be described as Rugby–style tactic to deal with another favourite of the President, the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Hammed Ali, a retired Colonel, over non-wearing of Customs’ uniform before the Senate. Recall that Ali was shoved out by the Senate penultimate week for not wearing the uniform that depicts his position as a Comptroller-General of Customs.
Consequently, the Senate had told the Presidency to tell Ali to resign from his position over the contending matter, adding that Ali was not fit to occupy any public position.
It goes without saying that, both Ali and the Presidency are yet to take a stance on the issue.
Also, recently, the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachair Lawal, who both known to be close allies of the President have been summoned to appear before the Senate.
Lawal had been in the eye of the storm over accusation of his complicity in the fraud associated with award of contracts under the Presidential Initiative on North-East.
There were allegations that the 20 companies said to have been awarded contracts running into billions of naira under PINE were non-existent. He had subsequently been invited to appear before the Senate ad-hoc Committee on Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North East, headed by Senator Shehu Sani, an invitation Lawal had consistently ignored.
Senator Sanni had declared, “Now we, are set to invite all those persons, it was supposed to be today, but unfortunately, it could not happen…we are not investigating the SFG alone, we are investigation contracts that were awarded under the PINE.
And over 20 companies are involved; but something very strange is the fact that, some of these companies involved we cannot actually trace their addresses.”
Explaining the degree of frustrations his committee is facing, Sanni added, “We went there, but they were not there. The option before us is either to report that they are ghost companies, or we keep on searching until we find them. But it is most likely that, it will be easier for the camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for us to find some of those names there.”
It was as a result of these and other sundry matters considered as “systematic attack on those that are considered as the eyes of the Presidency, with recourse to appointments, have lately spurred the ‘think tank elite political groups’ within the Presidency, to cause a cursory look at all the political deeds and misdeeds of both Saraki and Ekweremadu, who are generally believed to the arrowheads that have been the clog in the wheel of presidential progress, with a view to removing the duo from office.
