Senator Abdullahi Adamu has accused Senators elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC of working against the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and the party on which platform they were elected.
Adamu spoke in reaction to the presidential veto of the amendment to the Electoral Act on Tuesday.
It will be recalled that some senators led by Adamu had staged a walkout during its adoption the adoption of the controversial amendment which stipulated timetable for the 2019 general election, cited irregularities in the adoption of the harmonised report of the Conference Committee on the Electoral Act Amendment by the Senate.
But Adamu’s protest and accusation led to his removal as the Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum, while another senator who participated in the protest, Ovie Omo-Agege was asked to appear before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions over his comment that Buhari was the target of the amendment to Section 25.
Abdullahi said he was being persecuted by the Senate over his stance that National Assembly has no business changing the sequencing of the elections in a statement he issued on Tuesday.
“It is important for the public to know that I have committed no crime against the Senate and/or its leadership. I have done nothing to bring the revered upper legislative House to ridicule intentionally or inadvertently,” he said.
He added that he was also being persecuted for his decision to caution, at a “raucous” plenary session, against the increasing show of disrespect for the president, which he noted had become the pattern.
“The National Assembly is the second arm of this administration. We cannot undermine the executive without undermining the government of which we are a part,” he added in the statement.
“Part of my crime is my stand on the amendment to the Electoral Act. In that controversial amendment, the Senate seeks to change the order of the elections decided by the electoral umpire, INEC, for the 2019 general election.
“I and some of my colleagues were opposed to this amendment on the grounds that it is not the duty of the Senate to determine the order of elections. It had never been part of the Electoral Act and there is no need to deny the commission the right to do its duty as it deems fit.
“Happily, I am not alone in taking this stand. Some of my colleagues are opposed to it too. We addressed a press conference to that effect. Our intention was not to insult the Senate but to register our principled stand on a matter that concerns all Nigerians.
“Our party, the APC, has the majority in both chambers of the National Assembly, yet we hold the executive a prisoner of politics; that is unhealthy for the polity.
“It is such a terrible irony that we sabotage our own government by refusing to do our part in support of the executive. Appointments requiring Senate approval are held up. The consequence is that the public has nicknamed the president and his administration ‘go-slow’.
“The people gave us the mandate as a party to deliver. With our control of the executive and the National Assembly, there is no reason why the government cannot acquit itself and fulfil the yearnings of the people.
“Perhaps, while we are consumed with sabotaging the administration and stabbing one another in the back, we forget that in less than a year from now, we shall be required to seek the people’s revalidation of our mandate to sit in these hallowed chambers. What shall we tell them?”
The former governor also denied allegation that that he was working to oust Saraki, saying he could have contested for the Senate presidency in 2015.
“I have also heard what I consider to be rumours to the effect that the Senate plans to suspend me. I hope it is a mere rumour bandied around in the current climate of mutual recrimination.
“However, I would not be surprised if such an extreme form of punishment is being contemplated by the Senate leadership. In the history of mankind, dissent as a matter of principle, has always been punished rather than rewarded.
“I would caution against the decision, if indeed such a decision is on the cards to suspend me because it would serve no purpose other than to demonstrate the exercise of power in a manner that results in its abuse.
“I am in the Senate primarily to represent the interest of my people in the South-western Senatorial District of Nasarawa State.
“My voice is the voice of my people; my stand on critical national issues that agitate us is the stand of my people. To suspend me on the basis of baseless allegations that do not amount to the infraction of Senate rules, is to deny them my voice and my representation.
“The power to suspend a senator must be exercised with a grave sense of responsibility, in order to protect the integrity of the Senate as an important democratic institution and of individual senators,” Abdullahi said.
