Senate President Bukola Saraki/Photo: Pointblank
Senate President Bukola Saraki should be expelled from the All Progressives Congress (APC), says Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party Yekini Nabena.
Nabena noted this on Wednesday after 51 federal lawmakers defected from the party.
In a statement, Nabena said Saraki should be expelled for going against the APC and being the ringleader of the defecting lawmakers.
“He must go now. Or be shown the way out”, Nabena said. “The news of the about 15 senators who reportedly defected from our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), hardly came as a surprise to anyone.
“What, however, shocked political observers, especially democratic minds, was Senate President Bukola Saraki’s postures and expressions, which clearly communicated his unhidden complicity in the charades against his supposed party.
“Clearly, Saraki had a big hand in organizing the events that transpired in the National Assembly. He has, therefore, lost the moral justification to remain in APC. The time to expel him from the party is now.
“The public outing by the deserters at the National Assembly was the culmination of months of anti-party activities organized and directed by Saraki. And every scene in that dramatic work of shame revealed his hand.”
He added that “When the senators submitted the letter declaring their intention to leave APC, which was excitedly read by Saraki, the Senate Leader, Senator Ahmed Lawan, attempted to point out what should have been the right procedure if APC had a true party man at the helm.”
“Lawan tried to emphasize the need to allow some time for dialogue, knowing that politics is always a game of negotiation, dialogue, and agreement.
“Rather than listen to the Senate leader and stand down the defections, at least temporarily, to see how the situation could be salvaged, Saraki simply gave in to his own consuming interest in the whole affair and enthusiastically shut down the valid intervention by Lawan.
“The Senate president went on to make a deceitful case for the defectors. Being the ringleader, therefore, there is no justification for APC’s continued toleration of Saraki. He must go for anti-party activities.