BUHARI HAS TO BE CALLED TO ORDER, NO ONE IS IN CHARGE OF THIS GOVT, SENATOR SAYS
BUHARI HAS TO BE CALLED
TO ORDER, NO ONE IS IN CHARGE OF THIS GOVT, SENATOR SAYS
Nigerian Senate Chambers
The Senate was on Wednesday thrown
into a rowdy session when a lawmaker, Biodun Olujimi, accused President
Muhammadu Buhari of losing authority on his administration.
Mrs. Olujimi, PDP-Ekiti, was
responding to a motion on the face-off between Nigeria’s security agencies
raised by Dino Melaye, Kogi-APC.
Officials of the State Security
Services, SSS, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, were
involved in a showdown on Tuesday when EFCC operatives attempted to arrest the
immediate past Director-General of the SSS, Ekpenyong Ita.
A similar scenario also played out
when SSS operatives prevented the anti-graft agency from arresting the former
Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke.
Presenting the motion, Mr. Melaye
called on the Senate to take an urgent action on the incidents he described as
“recipe for national disaster”.
“Mr. President, the media and the
social media, print and electronics have been awash with a disaster that took
place yesterday. The EFCC went to the residence of the former Director General
of the SSS, Ita Ekpeyong, to effect an arrest and the Directorate of State
Security stopped the EFCC from arresting him. That created environmental
brouhaha. The whole environment and neighbours were stopped from lawfully
gaining entrance into their homes because of this confusion.
“Same yesterday, the EFCC wanted to
arrest the former DG NIA, Mr. Oke. Also, the officers of the Nigeria
Intelligence Agency stopped that arrest. We are not here to say who is at
blame. We have been embarrassed before the international community. That two
sister agencies will engage in fisticuffs, arrest and stoppage of arrests. Mr.
President, this is a recipe for national disaster.”
Commenting on Mr. Melaye’s motion,
Mrs. Olujimi said President Buhari had lost his authority as ‘nobody’ was in
charge of the current administration.
“Right now, we have a situation
whereby nobody is in charge of anything and we cannot honestly blame anyone for
what is happening. The truth is that you cannot go to the house of a security
agent, a man who had kept the secrets of Nigeria for so long, and just try to
arrest him like chicken.
“Mr. President, there has to be
someone that we can hold responsible when two brothers are fighting. The person
that is supposed to be held responsible has not done anything, is not doing his
work.
“This is the first time we’ll see
gross irresponsibility in government whereby there is no arbiter. No one to
come in between two agencies that belong to only one person. The two agencies
report to one person, the presidency and now we find them fighting on the pages
of the newspapers, it’s a shame. We are calling on the President, he has to sit
up, he should be up and doing. Call these people to order.”
She questioned the president on why a
new nominee for the position of Chairman of EFCC has not been sent to the
Senate.
“Mr. President, you will remember
that we rejected Mr. Magu as Chairman of EFCC and up till today nothing has
been said about it. The Senate is divided. Nobody has come out to say we need
to resolve the issue.
“After all, there are 170 million
Nigerians, all of a sudden, we are saying only one person can do this job. Mr.
President, something has to be done, the presidency has to be called to order.
Nobody is in charge of this government. Nobody is in charge and somebody needs
to be in charge.”
Mrs. Olujimi’s statement threw the
house into a rowdy session as senators on both the ruling and opposition raised
their voices to defend their own.
The Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, in
response cautioned Mrs. Olujimi against making such statements, noting that
President Buhari is in “full control of the government of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria.”
“Even when Mr. President was away to
attend to his health, the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, was in full control.
“The statement by our colleague is
unacceptable. It’s not right, it is wrong,” he said amidst a roar of ‘Yes’ from
senators who raised their voices in support.
“My opinion about what happened is
that, could it be that EFCC did not get the right kind of document to arrest
those people?
