Senate dismisses impeachment plot against Akpabio

The Senate has described as a ruse the rumour making the rounds in a section of the media that some Senators were planning to impeach the Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Yemi Adaramodu, made the clarification in a statement in Abuja.

Adaramodu’s clarification came hours after the Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media and Publicity, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, denied the alleged plot against Akpabio.

Adaramodu said: “Our attention has just been drawn to syndicated satanic verses in a section of the media, of purported and illusory plots of leadership change in the Senate.

“The Nigerian Senate is one united and fraternal family. This imaginative composition is in the realm of the fake and fallacious story of 100 million per legislator.

“It’s apt to note that the 10th 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 a hand tool to these retailers of fake and bad news.”

Eyiboh, in a statement he issued in Abuja yesterday, said that contrary to “sponsored reports” in a section of the media that some unnamed senators were plotting to impeach Akpabio, the Nigerian Senate under the Senate President’s leadership is stable and unperturbed by what appears to be a syndicated media attack from outside the precincts of the National Assembly.

Eyiboh insisted that the reports were complete imaginations sometimes laced with malice to achieve what Senators are yet to comprehend.

He said: “The Senate has since moved on after the leadership contest. The plot to drag in Senators who initially did not support the emergence of the present leadership into a conspiracy that does not exist was uncharitable to the Senators.

“Senators are presently concluding their holidays in their constituencies and other places they have chosen to spend their time after the rigours of the inauguration and ministerial screening.

“All senators are also refreshing themselves ahead of resumption, and suggestions that they are engaged in other subversive plots against the institution are rather uncharitable.

“It is especially uncharitable for those Senators who initially did not support the emergence of the leadership, but who have all unanimously endorsed the Senator Akpabio-led leadership.

“Continuing to link these Senators with one conspiracy or the other with barely disguised innuendo is rather unkind.

“We call on the media not to give in to the conspiratorial tales and to please not do damage to the reputation they have built over time.”

In a related development, some leaders of Niger Delta extraction have vowed to resist any attempt to impeach Akpabio.

The leaders, in a statement signed by the Secretary, Citizens Network for Peace and Development (CNPDN), Francis Wainwei, explained why no serious Nigerian should take the threat seriously.

They said in the last 10 years, no Senate President had spread the chairmanship of standing committees like Akpabio did.

The South-South leaders explained that opposition members just like senators elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), got ‘juicy’ committees.

The pro-South South group leaders said the senators pushing the narrative have a bigger plan to destabilise the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu by causing unnecessary tension in the National Assembly.

The statement challenged the purveyors of the purported impeachment moves to show their faces and get ready to accept the dire consequences.

The statement reads: “We woke up to a funny story on Saturday morning about a purported plan by some unnamed senators to impeach Akpabio.

“Such stories can be ignored. But because we live in a society where some people take jokes too far, we have to immediately stop them.

“Before those unnamed senators take their jokes too far, we need to remind them that we won’t fold our hands and watch them. We’ll resist any attempt or move by anyone.

“We know the antecedents of these people and we know that they’re actually targeting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Once they weaken the National Assembly, they’ll go after President Tinubu. We won’t allow them.

“If you couldn’t win elections through the ballots, you can’t also take over power through the backdoor. Akpabio will remain the President of the 10th Senate and Chairman of the National Assembly.

“No Senate President has ever done what Akpabio has done in a few months. If not for mischief, why are they in a hurry to disturb Akpabio?

“The South-South supported these same people when they were in power. Why would they want to sabotage Akpabio who is the highest political office holder from the South South, which is the economic power of the country?

“For the sake of peace, we call on those jokers to leave Akpabio alone and allow him to focus on the task of rebuilding Nigeria with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“Rebuilding Nigeria is a task for everyone. If you can’t stand the heat, we urge you to exit the kitchen and allow those who mean well for Nigeria to do the right thing.”