APC to renew attempts to remove Saraki, Ekweremadu and Dogara today as National Assembly resumes

SENATE president Senator Bukola Saraki House of Representatives speaker Hon Yakubu Dogara face a battle for survival battle later today when the National Assembly resumes as the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) intends removing them from office.

In August, there were a series of defections in the National Assembly with about 15 senators and 37 members of the House of Representatives leaving the APC to join the main opposition the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Senator Saraki and Hon Dogara were blamed by the APC for bring behind the move and both of them have since defected to the PDP.

Immediately after the defections were announced, the National Assembly proceeded on its summer recess and 75 afterwards, it is now poised to resume sitting today.  In the senate in particular, the today's session is expected to be stormy as the APC is believed to be intent on removing Senator Saraki and his deputy Senator  Ike Ekweremadu.

Yesterday,  members of both parties traded words over the issue and while the PDP warned its APC colleagues not to beat the drums of war, some APC senators vowed that the senate president will be removed at the slightest opportunity. Other matters to be discussed today include the approval of funds for the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) to conduct the 2019 elections, amendments to the electoral bill and a debate on state and community police .

Since Senator Saraki formally defected to the PDP on July 31, APC leaders have called on him to resign his senate presidency or be impeached. However, Senator Saraki countered that the APC does not have the two-third majority or 73 senators needed to impeach him and PDP senators have vowed to resist attempts to  remove the senate president.

Yesterday, the  PDP senate caucus said that it was prepared for a battle with APC senators who are bent on using forceful means to remove Senators Saraki and Ekweremadu. Taking a swipe at the senate leader Senator Ahmad Lawan, the PDP senators warned him against any plan to cause tension, stressing that the leadership of the senate is not by party affiliation but through an election by all the senators.

Senate minority leader, Senator Biodun Olujimi, said that Senator Lawan as a principal officer and one of the oldest lawmakers in the present dispensation should  be conversant with the workings of the National Assembly. Hon Dogara is also a target for impeachment as the APC is insisting on its control of the House of Representatives as the majority party in the country but the PDP members there are also ready for battle.

However, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, representing Delta Central Senatorial District, said: “Our demand has not changed, in fact, that demand has been accentuated by the directive of the APC national leadership. We have all been enjoined as APC senators at a slightest opportunity to remove Saraki and once we are provided with that slightest opportunity, we will remove him and he knows that."

He added that the moment Senator Saraki left the APC to join the minority PDP, he lost the right, legal and moral, to occupy the office of the senate president. He added that Senator Saraki knows he cannot remain in office while a member of the PDP.