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Alleged Forgery: Shenanigans of Senate Unity Forum

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Senator Abubakar Bukola SarakiSenate Unity Forum was formed as a political pressure group made of Senators elected under the platform of All Progressive Congress, APC for the sole purpose of

bargaining for political power and influence peddling in the 8th Senate. 

Ever since the unprecedented emergence of Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki [image above] as Senate President and Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the opposition PDP, as Deputy Senate President of 8th Senate against permutations of APC leadership, things have fallen apart for the Senate Unity Forum.

 The Unity Forum campaigned vigorously for the aborted ambitions of Senators Ahmed Lawan and George Akume of the APC who threw all they had at their disposal in the ring of political contest to vie for Senate Presidency and Deputy Senate Presidency, respectively. 

After the constitutionally certified elections of Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy Senate President, respectively, Senate Unity Forum, instead of towing the part of honour which is in line with spirit of sportsmanship to congratulate the winners of the elections, resorted to mudslinging and blackmailing by alleging that the Senate Standing Rules used in the conduct of election of principal officers of the 8th Senate was forged. 

This group of Senators went ahead to submit themselves to the same Senate leadership which they accused of emerging via “forged” Senate Rules for swearing-in, this is hypocrisy number one. 

After licking its wounds of defeat in the election of Senate Presidency and due consultations with its “oracle” in Lagos, Senate Unity Forum embarked on another wild goose chase where the selfish interest of a godfather was packaged and branded as party supremacy which they intended using to foist the remaining principal officers of Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader, Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip on the entire 8th Senate.

Thanks to the wisdom of the indefatigable Senate President Bukola Saraki who saw the hypocrisy in the party supremacy mantra and stood his ground to safeguard the independence of the 8th National Assembly.

In other to blackmail Senate leadership into accepting the list of Senators endorsed by APC leadership for the above mentioned principal officers positions, Senate Unity Forum allegedly hired the services of immediate past Senate Committee Chairman on Ethnics, Rules and Business Senator Ita Enang, who incidentally was a PDP Senator of 7th Senate but left for the APC when his bread was no longer being buttered by his former party, the PDP to execute henchman’s job for anti-Saraki/Ekweremadu Senators of “disunity” forum by writing baseless petition to the police on the alleged forgery of Senate Standing Rules of 2015. 

It is incontrovertible that Senator Enang was compensated with the inglorious appointment as Special Adviser to the President on Senate for consulting for Senate Unity Forum as regards petition on forgery written against the elections of Senate leadership. Ironically, Senator Enang is coming to work on behalf of the President with the same Senate leadership he has been antagonising. Senator Enang’s appointment exposed President Buhari’s political naivety as regards legislative arm of government.

After painstaking and water-tight investigations of the allegation of forgery against current Senate leadership by the police, the petition was thrown into  waste bin where it belong not minding propagandist noise deplored by Tinubu cum Lagos media platforms to arm-twist Nigerian Police into indicting Senate Leadership in its report. 

As Senate Unity Forum was busy working hard to invalidate the elections that brought Senators Saraki and Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy Senate President, respectively, the master strategist, Senate President Saraki nailed the political coffin of the forum by announcing the names of Principal Officers as presented by each geo-political on the floor of the Senate which ran contrary to dashed expectations of the Senate Unity Forum. Seeing that their party supremacy jargon could not hold water, Senate Unity Forum dragged Senate leadership to Court with two major prayers: stopping Saraki-led Senate from constituting Committees and nullification of elections that brought Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu, respectively.

On Thursday 27, August 2015, political earthquake shook the already wobbling foundation of the APC which collapsed political tall dreams of some of its stakeholders, who hitherto were expecting to be announced as Kitchen Cabinet of President Mohammadu Buhari-led administration. The unprecedented lopsided appointments made by President Buhari without consultation with the party hierarchy; made mockery of the so-called party supremacy championed by bewildered Senate Unity Forum; violated  Sections of 1999  Constitution as regards to Federal Character and deflated over bloated ego of sponsors of Senate Unity Forum. 

If the leader and number one member of a political party—the APC, President Buhari does not give a damn about party supremacy via his recent appointments that are still generating dust in and out of the APC, what moral yardstick will the APC use to impose so-called party supremacy on National Assembly? If a president produced by a party did not honour the list submitted by his party when appointing his kitchen cabinet members, which moral pedestrian will the same President stand to antagonise Senate President for turning his back on party list when choosing Principals Officers of Senate? Is this not broad-day hypocrisy? 

Recently, the media was washed with news that Senate Unity Forum had withdrawn its lawsuit bothering on alleged forgery of Senate Sanding Rules 2015 which was seeking to upturn wildly accepted credible elections of two most senior Principal Officers of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu, respectively. The news was greeted with commendation from Senate Spokesman, Senator Dino Melaye describing it as welcome development which in turn will restore peace in the Red Chamber. 

Few hours after Dino Melaye’s media briefing, Senate Unity Forum via its Legal Counsel denied withdrawing the alleged forgery case from court which gave credence to my earlier assertion that Senate Unity Forum is imploring shenanigans propelled by propaganda as a tool to negotiate for juicy Senate Committee Chairmanship positions.

In the forgoing context, the APC which recently disassociated itself from its un-implementable campaign promises as contained in the two controversial documents: “100 DAYS IN OFFICE and MY Covenant with Nigerians”, which were used vigorously by the APC party Headquarters in Abuja to garner votes across the country for President Buhari as its then candidate before the general elections, in less than 100 days in office has come out to deny the same campaign documents that had the signatures of President Buhari and party logo on it. 

The mindboggling and thought-provoking questions racing through discerning minds of Nigerians are: who authorized and signaled those documents without consent of President Buhari? Why didn’t the APC as a party take full page advertorial in a national newspaper to deny these documents, why now they are already in power? Are these not the mother of all deceit and forgeries orchestrated by the same party in court with Senate leadership on allegation forgery? Your guess is as good as mine.

Nwobodo Chidiebere writes form Abuja; chidieberenwobodo@yahoo.com

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