National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has challenged Dr. Bukola Saraki to relinquish his position as President of the Senate.
But Saraki told New Telegraph that Oshiomhole’s statement lacks basis and that he should be ignored.
Oshiomhole stated this yesterday in reaction to Tuesday’s defection of Saraki to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The APC chairman had led some senators from his party to a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja.
Speaking to State House Correspondents after the meeting, Oshiomhole said it was necessary for the Senate President to take the honourable step since he was now in a minority party at the National Assembly.
He noted that he was not surprised with the defection of the Senate President.
“Whatever is the reason, we can decamp from party but we can’t decamp from Nigeria. The only thing is that there are other consequential issues that every man or woman of honour who had taken such decisions would be expected to follow through.
“I mean you should not collect a crown that belongs to a family and wear it on behalf of the family if for your personal reasons which he has enumerated that he has gone to another family.
“It is just a matter of honour to leave the crown in the house that the crown belongs to. As it stands now, APC is still the largest party in the Senate; we have 53 senators, that is much more than PDP has or APGA has,” he noted.
Oshiomhole explained that there were lessons from the defection of the Senate President and other members of the party to the PDP.
He said: “Going forward, we will expect the system to get stronger to the extent that it is able to learn the correct lessons and take the correct steps to profit from these developments.”
In his reaction, the Senate President, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu, told Oshiomhole to resign as APC national chairman because there is a case in court.
“I don’t think we should give credence to a statement that lacks basis. We should not dignify people who make statement that demean their office. I think Oshiomhole should be ignored,” Olaniyonu told New Telegraph.
Meanwhile, the APC chairman said that for party members who have genuine, verifiable grievances, he was committed even now to listen and address those grievances.
Oshiomhole noted that such an arrangement is what he calls “win-win manner.”
“To the best of my knowledge, all senators, House of Representatives’ members were happy, the ones that are not negotiable, there is nothing we can do about it,” he said.
In his remarks, the Senate Leader, Dr. Ahmed Lawan, who spoke on the supplementary budget pending before the parliament, said he was hopeful that the lawmakers will be responsible and resume to consider the fiscal document.
“As the president leaves for his vacation, I believe we are supposed to continue to be very responsible legislators, those issues that are so important to this country that we have not dealt with, we should be able to come together, come back and deal with them.
“Here, I have in mind the consideration of the budget of INEC for the 2019 election. That is, the request of Mr. President to approve some virement on the 2018 budget. I believe that we are going to do a lot of justice to the people of this country to work hard to pass those requests,” he stressed.
Lawan explained that the APC remains the majority in the Senate.
“We have 53 senators, we reeled out the names and the states. Though the other side is claiming they are 60, 70 but they have never given names.
“It is left for you to make your judgement. In fact, I am using this medium to challenge the PDP senators; we have published ours and among the 53 none has come out to deny that he is APC.”
He, therefore, challenged the PDP senators to publish their own membership. “They remain 48 senators in PDP,” he said.
“I am calling on my colleagues in the Senate and House of Representatives to come back and consider the requests of Mr. President for the virement and supplementary budget for INEC for the 2019 elections,” he appealed.
