Senator Dino Melaye (APC-Kogi West),
Ahead of the resumption of the Senate to consider among other matters, the virement of N242 billion for INEC Senator Dino Melaye has alleged that APC senators collected bribes to impeach the Senate President Bukola Saraki. Melaye made the allegation on Channels TV politics programme on Sunday.
The controversial senator now a member of the PDP said he has concrete evidence including video and electronic messages to prove that APC senators have been paid to remove Saraki but added that they can never muster the required two-third majority.
He warned that anything outside the constitutional process of removing principal officers would be resisted by the PDP. He specifically mentioned Senators Abdullahi Adamu and Senator Omo-Agege as two of the recipients of the bribe to sack Saraki. But he added that it is a project that has failed before it started as the APC cannot gather the 73 senators required by law to remove Saraki from office.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday said Senate leadership positions did not belong to political parties but to Nigerians.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, stated this in a statement in Abuja, and said principal officers in the chamber were elected by representatives elected by the people.
Ologbondiyan, therefore, advised the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Adams Oshiomhole, to stop moves to change the leadership of the Senate, saying such was completely out of his reach.
He said Oshiomhole should stop thinking that senate leadership could be changed by orders of a political party when the law settled that such power was vested only on two-third votes, representing 73 of the 109 senators.
“Since Oshiomhole assumed office, the nation has witnessed various unimaginable constitutional infractions, including the invasion of Benue House of Assembly and the Ekiti State Government House by security agencies.
“The escalated harassment of federal legislators and persons perceived to be averse to APCs’ re-election bid.
“The siege at the residences of Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, by security agencies as well as the recent invasion of the National Assembly by security operatives.”
Ologbondiyan called on Nigerians and the international community to note the activities of Oshiomhole, alleging that he was being directed from some quarters.
He, however, said that the PDP held firmly that the APC was fighting a lost battle.
Ologbondiyan said Nigerians could not be intimidated into their resolve to return the nation to the path of peace, national cohesion and economic prosperity, on the platform of the re-positioned PDP in 2019.
