Despite complaints from legislators, indications surfaced yesterday that the Presidency was more likely to save Akpabio should impeachment proceedings begin when the upper chamber reconvenes on September 26. It had been on recess.
According to a source in the presidency, the administration was concerned that impeaching the Senate President could “cause a ripple effect that could spill into the House of Representatives, which it cannot afford.”
As much as the villa was uncomfortable with recent comments made by Akpabio, the president is desirous of retaining Akpabio for the sake of stability, the source added. The villa was also conscious of not playing into the hands of political opponents who might seize the National Assembly to undo the president politically.
In both chambers of the National Assembly, there have been complaints from lawmakers who lost out in the leadership scuffle and others who didn’t obtain lucrative committee assignments.
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Two parliamentarians from the North West are reportedly leading the impeachment effort, while other senators from throughout the National Assembly are reportedly already planning how to execute the risky step. Their complaint was that the Senate President would be unable to do his duties efficiently since he serves as the president’s rubber stamp.
Yemi Adaramodu, the head of the Senate committee on media and publicity, downplayed the threat of impeachment, calling it false and erroneous given that the upper chamber is “one united and fraternal family.”
In a surprising turn of events, Ishaku Abbo, the senator for Adamawa North, accused Akpabio and his associates of fabricating the impeachment threat tale.
Abbo stated that the narrative was developed by Akpabio’s camp in order to stoke tension between President Bola Tinubu and northern MPs.
As a senator from the North and a representative of the Northern Senators Forum, Abbo asserted, “As a Northern senator and an official of the Northern Senators Forum, I boldly affirm that this news is intentionally disseminated and propagated by the ‘camp’ of Senator Akpabio solely to pit President Bola Tinubu against the North. I call on Senator Akpabio to rein in his camp, as the seeds of discord and deep ethno-religious division they are sowing will not bode well for the country. Why the North? Why in Saudi Arabia?”
“If Akpabio and his camp wanted a united Senate, much like Ahmed Lawan, they would have known exactly what to do during Senate Standing Committees allocation and supplementary budget resources allocation. But the camp of the SP continued to treat the Senate as a conquered territory where the winner walks away with the spoils of war, a classic case of the winner takes all.”
“How do you justify a situation where out of Category A Committees, only two were granted to his perceived rivals? How will you explain a Senate where 83.1 percent of those appointed chairmen of Category A Committees also serve as vice chairmen of Category A?
“How do you explain a third-term Senator being denied the chairmanship of a committee? How do you justify the leadership of the Senate, all being Vice Chairmen of Category A Committees? You cannot treat us as conquered people and then return to manipulate us with planted and paid newspaper reports to set us against the president.”
