Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu
The police said on Wednesday that
they had concluded their investigations into the alleged forgery of
Senate rules by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and some
principal officers and management of the National Assembly.
The police said they had interrogated all the persons involved and that the findings would be made public next week.
The Police Public Relations Officer,
Emmanuel Ojukwu, told one of our correspondents on the telephone on
Wednesday that “the police had done the needful.”
When asked if investigators had quizzed
all the suspects in the forgery case, he said, “We have talked to all
the people involved in the case and by next week, the findings would be
made public.
“The outcome of investigation and legal advice will determine who to be prosecuted.”
Ojukwu spoke shortly after the Senate
Unity Forum, a group made up of anti-Senate President Bukola Saraki
senators, expressed concern over the slow pace of police investigation
into the forgery allegations.
The SUF called on well-meaning Nigerians
to, as a matter of urgency, prevail on authorities concerned to commence
necessary investigation that would unravel the alleged forgery scandal.
The group’s secretary, Senator Suleiman
Hunkunyi, had petitioned the police, alleging that the 2015 Senate
Standing Rules was forged.
Hunkunyi’s petition read in part, “We
write to bring to your attention the existence of the fraudulent
introduction of a 2015 Senate Standing Rules as amended.
“We wish to attach the original and authentic Standing Order for 2011 that was used by the 7th Senate, Annexure A.
“We again attached the annex Herero, a
purported amended Standing Orders 2015, which was used by the Clerk to
the National Assembly (along with the Clerk of the Senate) in
inaugurating the 8th Senate on June 9, 2015.
“The so-called new Standing Orders
purports to allow for secret instead of the open ballot system that has
been prevalent in all Senate elections as permitted by the extant rules.
“This infraction, among others, arises
from the fraudulent production of the Rules without an approved
consideration by the 7th Senate.
“At no time was the Standing Orders of
the Senate amended during the entire life of the 7th Senate neither has
the 8th Senate sat for long enough to produce the rules now being
circulated and in use”.
The police, on the strength of the
petition, subsequently quizzed the leadership of the 7th Senate,
including Senator David Mark; his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu; former Senate
Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba; and the former Chairman, Senate Committee on
Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang.
But the SUF, in a statement by its
spokesperson, Senator Kabir Marafa, in Abuja on Wednesday, lamented that
the police action on the issue was becoming too slow.
Marafa said, “The problem is that the
Senate was inaugurated using a forged document. Who forged that
document? We can’t gloss over or sweep that criminality under the
carpet, Nigeria is not a Banana republic.
“The standing order is an upshot of the
constitution, it spelt out clearly in order 110 (1-5) how it can be
amended just like the constitution spelt out how it can be amended in
section 9 (1-4).
“The insertion of order 3 (2 IV) & 3
(3e i-iiii) in the 2015 edition is a deliberate act perpetrated by 5th
columnist operating within the National Assembly to sabotage the
government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“It was done to cause friction,
disaffection and generate bad blood among senators from different zones
and provoke confusion in the senate with the sole aim of stagnating
government business to give them time to perfect their agenda.”
He lamented, for instance, that the
insertion of order 3 (2 iv), was done to favour the Peoples Democratic
Party caucus in the Senate who supported Senator Bukola Saraki, to
become the Senate President.
He said, “For 16 years of the PDP
leadership, the presiding officers and committee headship were skewed in
favour of the zones that produced more PDP senators but suddenly they
introduced equality of zones in the distribution of these offices
because they lost out, this is unacceptable by APC senators.
“Let me use this medium to call on all
well-meaning Nigerians to as a matter of urgency call on all the
authorities concerned to commence investigation into this illegality
before it overwhelms us as a nation.”
Marafa added that there was no law that
set time frame within which to clear the service chiefs, adding that
President Muhammadu Buhari had the powers to appoint the service chiefs
on acting capacity.
The President had on Monday appointed new
service chiefs and a National Security Adviser after sacking those he
inherited from his predecessor, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
Buhari had said the service chiefs would
function in acting capacity pending their approval by the National
Assembly as required by the Constitution.
Copyright PUNCH.
No comments:
Post a Comment