….. Saraki led a ‘gang of forty thieves to disrupt APC’s plans for Nigeria – Igbokwe
……. Igbokwe is an impersonator on a mission to cause confusion within the APC – Buhari
The travails of the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki continues to polarise the political sphere and his party, All Progressives Congress has been caught in the web.
The Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Lagos State chapter, Joe Igbokwe, in an article blamed Saraki for engineering his own predicament and should not be shown pity.
According to Igbokwe, he wondered why Saraki flouted the orders of his party, by leading ‘a gang of forty thieves’ to disrupt the plan of the ruling APC, stated that Nigerians should not pity the Senate President because he tried to be bigger than the party.
Responding however, the Kwara State chapter of the APC, in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja by the party’s Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Sulyman Buhari, described the Lagos APC Spokesman, Mr Joe Igbokwe as an impersonator on a mission to cause confusion within the APC family in the country.
Igbokwe said: “One of the biggest problems facing Nigeria today is impunity. It has led to corruption, arrogance, brigandage, deep political crisis and outright murder. This pandemic disease has led to near collapse of our economy, collapse of values, collapse of institutions and collapse of governance. This high table mentality in Nigeria has led gullible people to take laws into their hands and damn the consequences to the detriment of 160 million Nigerians.
“This is the reason why Senator Saraki ignored his Party (APC) directives and connived with a useless party (PDP) we just defeated to steal the Senate Presidency. He did not stop there, the criminal arrangement led to the emergence of Senator Ekweremadu of PDP as the Deputy Senate President. The moment this brigandage took place we saw wild jubilation in the camp of PDP. Ekweremadu went to Enugu State and told his people that PDP is back. A lady who is a PDP member mockingly said to me: “yes APC won the election but we have taken over the National Assembly” it was then that it became clear to me the extent of damage Senator Saraki inflicted on the leadership of APC.
“What Senator Saraki did is unheard of in the history of Party politics. Saraki made the world to believe that APC leaders are unprepared for the task of governing this country. Saraki’s inordinate ambition at once put a question mark on the capacity of leaders of APC to drive leadership in Nigeria. Saraki tried to prove to the whole world that he is smarter than all the leaders of APC put together. Saraki ignored 51 APC Senators who were in a meeting and went to do business with 49 PDP Senators, a party APC just defeated after 16 years bloody struggle. Senator Saraki bribed his way to the clerk of the Senate and cajoled him to proclaim a Senate that is incomplete. Saraki and Ekweremadu criminally changed the Senate rules in order to carry out the open robbery we saw in the hallowed Chamber of the Senate of Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Because of the inordinate ambition of one man and lust to be the Senate President by all means Saraki ignored the President, the Vice President, APC governors, Senators, House of Reps members etc to sacrifice the unity of his party. Senator Saraki compounded the problems of APC, and mounted a major road block for its smooth take off considering that it is just coming to power after sixteen years in opposition. This man put spanners in the works and initiated a serious internal crisis within the ruling party that nearly made Nigerians who massively voted for APC to begin to lose hope. Saraki and his gang of 40 thieves devastated the master plan of our great party to choose the right people to serve as the Principal Officers in the National Assembly. Since July 9, 2015 when this shenanigan took place in the Senate and the huge dust it raised, Senator Saraki has remained adamant to disobey the Party’s directives and step aside rather he has continued to run from pillar to post to sustain a stolen seat. The lust for power, rapacious greed, avaricious tendency, and slave to public office have pushed Bukola Saraki to continue to work with PDP in order to weaken APC.
“But will Bukola Saraki succeed? Impossible. APC does not want Bukola Saraki as the Senate President and neither does APC want Ekweremadu as the Deputy Senate President. Saraki has caused enough implosions within the party. He has brought public opprobrium to the party, he has slowed down the Party’s machinery from taking off smoothly, he has portrayed us as a weak party. Now is the time for him to go. Saraki has no choice than to go otherwise he will have himself to blame. Again if Bukola Saraki feels his hands are tightly glued to the exalted seat of the Senate Presidency and therefore cannot be removed, APC may be compelled to tear or cut his hands off, so that the National Assembly can move forward. No man is an island, and none can claim that he is the final word in APC .
“I shed no tears for Senator Saraki,” he said.
However, Alhaji Sulyman Buhari of Kwara APC said: “The attention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State has been drawn to a recent press statement issued by the Publicity Secretary of the Lagos State chapter of our party, Mr Joe Igbokwe, wherein he claimed ‘APC does not want Bukola Saraki as the Senate President’, made litany of disjointed and false views and other unacceptable comments that are too awful to be quoted.”
“We wish to strongly condemn the statement as unacceptable and a clear act of impersonation. It should also be noted that Mr Igbokwe’s statement doesn’t represent the views of members of our party across the country. What Mr Igbokwe has exhibited is a clear act of impersonation. Is he the Chairman or National Publicity Secretary of our party?
“For anyone who was tempted to doubt our claim that the case against the Senate President is not an anti-corruption driven case but a politically-motivated prosecution aimed at undermining the person and the office of the Senate President, it is now clearer. Mr Igbokwe’s recent vituperation against the person and the office of the Senate President is part of the script designed by desperate politicians to pull down the Senate President at all costs.
“Again, we wish to unequivocally and categorically condemn, reject and dismiss the call for the resignation of Senate President Bukola Saraki by sponsored faceless groups and bought souls as out of place and politically-sponsored.
“Kwara APC also reiterates that with the collective resolve of Nigerians for a peaceful and prosperous Nigeria with utmost regard for principles of separation of powers and the independence of the legislature coupled with the uprightness of the judicial system, this satanic plot against the Senate President is doomed to fail,” the statement read.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has lined up a total of five witnesses that will testify against Saraki, including the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and incumbent governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Naisr El-Rufai.
El-Rufai is expected to testify that he was the one that sold one of the assets that Saraki bought in Abuja, which the government alleged that he failed to include among the assets belonging to him.
The government said it has already furnished Saraki with the proof of evidence against him, just as it also attached as exhibits, four different assets declaration forms the accused persons submitted to the CCB.
Before he exited the dock yesterday, Saraki, who was all smiles, gaily acknowledged cheers from his supporters who defied heavy security presence within the tribunal premises and thronged the court room in their numbers yesterday.