President Muhammadu Buhari has invited members of the All Progressives Congress in the Senate to a meeting at the Presidential Villa. The meeting, which will hold on Monday, is to discuss the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen.
It will be recalled that Onnoghen was suspended on Friday by President Buhari based on an ex parte order granted by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
The erstwhile Chief Justice of Nigeria is facing six counts of false assets declaration filed against him by the Code of Conduct Bureau.
The President is also expected to meet with APC governors ahead of the Senate emergency resumption on Tuesday over the CJN issue.
Findings revealed that the APC senators’ meeting with the President is to take a united front against the expected condemnation of the CJN’s suspension by the members of the opposition in the Senate on Tuesday.
However, the meeting which is going to hold at the Banquet Hall, is attached to a dinner, with exclusive Invitations signed by the Director General of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation, who is also the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi.
It was also revealed that the national leadership of the APC would also attend the meeting.
According to a source close to the planning, some APC governors wil also be in attendance..
He said, “You know that the Senate leadership belongs to the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party. The party on its own has taken a position on this matter.
Read also: US, UK, and EU coordinated statements on CJN – our stance, by Presidency
“Also, the President of the Senate, who is also the Director General of the PDP presidential candidate Council, Bukola Saraki, has taken a position on this matter.
“So, we need to talk to our members in the Senate and impress it on them not to allow Saraki to impose his personal opinion on them.”
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that the President’s meeting with the APC senators is to induce the lawmakers to protect Buhari from looming showdown with the parliament.
According to a statement released by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, he noted that intelligence available to the PDP showed that that was the reason the Presidency had summoned all the APC senators to the Presidential Villa to a private meeting on Monday night.
Ologbondiyan said, “President Buhari is not only apprehensive that the Senate might sanction him for violating the constitution and usurping its statutory duties regarding the handling of issues related to a CJN, the parliament may also open an inquest into how President Buhari, who parades himself as Mr Integrity, allegedly procured an order from the CCT upon which he announced the illegal suspension of the CJN.
“There are reports that the said order is suspicious and subject to investigations, being not argued or issued in the open court; following which a distressed Buhari Presidency now seeks to corrupt and undermine the Senate.”