Senate, Reps in joint closed-door session over impeachment plan

 

As the Senate ended its Executive Session early afternoon on Tuesday, Senators moved to the House of Representatives Chamber for an emergency joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Senate President Bukola Saraki, as Chairman of the National Assembly was presiding over the closed-door meeting with House Speaker Yakubu Dogara assisting at time of filling this report.

A resolution of the emergency session will be made public by Saraki at the end of the meeting.

There are, however, speculations that the joint executive session may not be unconnected with recent developments between the police and the Senate President and to finalise planned impeachment of the president.

The police had on Sunday said five gang leaders and some of the suspects arrested in connection with the April 5 Offa bank robbery confessed that they were political thugs of Senator Saraki and Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.

Saraki and the governor have denied the allegations. The police had initially invited Saraki to appear at their office on Guzape, Abuja, but made a U-turn on Monday by requesting him to respond to the allegations in writing within 48 hours.

Cable News had earlier reported that the two chambers of the National Assembly will be locked in a joint closed-door session to discuss and deliberate over the political tension in the country.

The online medium said it was an outcome of a separate meeting held on Monday by some members of the national assembly to discuss the best way to address “the assault” on its members by the executive.

In a meeting that stretched all through the night, some senators proposed that an impeachment move should be commenced against President Muhammadu Buhari.

An insider at the meeting said national assembly leaders in attendance were “very jittery” over the impeachment threat as recent events in the polity “have instilled fear in them”.

As many as 25 APC senators who were planning to defect to PDP are no longer confident to do so after the series of police actions against their colleagues.

Dino Melaye and Shehu Sani have been guests of the police recently after being accused of criminal offences, while Senate President Bukola Saraki has been linked with the Offa bank heist of April 5 by the police.

Ike Ekweremadu, the deputy senate president, is due to face charges of violating the code of conduct law by allegedly failing to declare his assets outside Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the PDP has also accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of charging a number of its members to court which it described as politically motivated.

“When we mooted the idea of impeaching Buhari at the meeting, you could see that our leaders were not comfortable. They are clearly shaken by the robbery charge against Saraki,” a senator told TheCable.

Melaye was reported to be the most vocal of the lawmakers in attendance.

He teased the “jittery” senators, telling them Buhari would soon come after them whether or not they defected from APC.

“Dino told Ekweremadu (PDP) that he was wasting his time thinking Buhari would pipe down. He also accused Senator Godswill Akpabio (PDP) of spending money like water to prevent his arrest as if that would solve his problem,” another senator told TheCable.

Some were of the opinion that the best time for the APC senators to defect is now, insisting that public sympathy was with the opposition with the “persecution of those perceived to be politically opposed to Buhari”.

It was then resolved that a joint executive session would be held on Tuesday to agree on an appropriate response. The session will be closed to the public including the media. The medium reported.