Nigerian Senate Probes Akpabio’s Alleged Subservience to Tinubu, Impeachment Looms
The reported plot to remove the Senate’s president, Godswill Akpabio, from office when the national legislature reconvenes on September 26, 2023, has been disputed.
According to reports on social media, Senators Abdulaziz Yari (APC-Zamfara), Aminu Tambuwal (PDP-Sokoto), and Mohammed Onawo Ya’u Sumaila (PDP-Nasarawa) are leading a scheme to impeach Akpabio.
The conspirators charge Akpabio with being too deferential to President Bola Tinubu and with preventing the Senate from operating independently. The Whistler Newspaper claims that they are also making use of the public’s ire over how the government handled the coup in Niger and its anti-people policies, including the elimination of gasoline subsidies.
A former governor of Zamfara named Yari was Akpabio’s main opponent for the Senate presidency. According to reports, he and his entourage zoned the senate slots themselves, choosing Yari from the northwest and preparing to choose a deputy Senate president from the southeast.
A former governor of Zamfara named Yari was Akpabio’s main opponent for the Senate presidency. According to reports, he and his gang had chosen Yari from the north-west and were intending to choose a deputy Senate president from the south-east after doing their own zoning of the senate slots.
“We did a conventional zoning ourselves,” said Senator Suleiman Samaila, a member of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) who was elected to represent Kano South in June. “We picked Abdulaziz Yari from the north-west and we are planning to pick deputy senate president from the south-east, it shows you that we have done balancing.”
Additionally, Yari is purportedly courting opposition senators as he refines his strategy for seizing control of the Senate.
“They are currently in Saudi Arabia where they are perfecting plans to ensure Akpabio is removed,” the source said. “They claim he’s too subservient to the president and he’s not allowing the Senate to question the presidency and act as a check.”
The Upper Chamber should be given some breathing room to settle down for its national assignments so that the Nigerian project can advance, but the Senate has called the rumor making the rounds in some media that some Senators were planning to impeach the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, a ruse.
“Our attention has just been drawn to a syndicated satanic verses in a section of the media, of purported and illusory plots of leadership change in the Senate,” said Yemi Adaramodu, APC, of Ekiti South in a statement on Saturday.
“The Nigerian Senate is one united and fraternal family. This imaginative composition is in the realm of the fake and fallacious story of 100m per legislator. It’s apt to note that the10th Senate, under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio has carried out its Legislative and constitutional duties diligently.
“Within a span of less than 60 Legislative days, the Senate has passed life enhancing bills and motions. It has screened and confirmed Service Chiefs and Ministers, among others, apart from very essential oversight functions.
“We urge the fifth columnists, who operate undoubtedly outside the Senate, desperate to cause disharmony through media stunts and thus clipping the wings of Nigeria’s democracy, to take caution.
”The Senate should be allowed fresh air to settle down for its national assignments so that the Nigerian project can move forward. The media too, should be discerning not to be used as hand tool to these retailers of fake and bad news.”
