The leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has told the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Presidency to stop dreaming of removing the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu.
Describing such move as delusion, the opposition party said it was high time the ruling party and its agents came to terms with the reality that they lacked the constitutional backing to remove or call for the resignation of the two lawmakers.
In a statement on Friday by the spokesman of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party accused the ruling party of applying underhand tactics to oust Saraki and Ekweremadu.
The opposition party insisted that the APC and its agents staged last Tuesday’s invasion of the National Assembly by armed operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS)
Two-thirds majority of 73 of the 109 senators is required to impeach Saraki who last week, defected from the APC to the PDP. The same number is required for the removal of Ekweremadu.
Buttressing its allegation of complicity of the leadership other APC in the botched invasion of the federal legislature, the PDP said it was designed to remove the two officers through the back door.
The statement said, “Even before then, Nigerians were already aware of moves to use humongous funds to induce lawmakers to trigger crisis in the National Assembly and pave the way for the removal of presiding officers.
“Now that they have discovered that there is no way they can achieve their devious intentions, they have commenced a war of blackmail, distortions of fact and media trial against the Senate leadership, which, of course, will end up as another wasteful venture as Nigerians are aware of the long-drawn desperation of the Buhari Presidency to annex the legislature.
“Even among the ranks of the depleted APC senators and members of the House of Representatives, there is a huge aversion to the underhand tactics being deployed by the Buhari Presidency and the APC to force out duly elected presiding officers of the National Assembly.
“As such, such lawmakers are fully aligned with Nigerians, the PDP and the National Assembly leadership in the protection of the independence, sanctity and integrity of our parliament and all democratic institutions in our land.
“It is therefore instructive for both the Buhari Presidency and the APC to know that there is no way they can remove the leadership of the National Assembly, particularly the Senate.
“Consequently, the PDP cautions the Buhari Presidency and the APC to stop overheating the polity with their outbursts and shed future perverse attempts to circumvent our rules and constitution, as such will not help them or change the resolve of Nigerians to vote them out in 2019”.