Date: 2016-06-20

Senate President, Bukola Saraki, his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu and two others are to appear before a Federal High Court in Abuja today over criminal conspiracy and forgery of the Senate Standing Rules, 2015.

However, the Senate yesterday alleged that the government was planning to get them remanded in Kuje prison after their appearance.

Senate spokesperson, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, in a statement yesterday said the case was an attempt by the executive to muzzle the legislature and criminalise legislative processes.

He added that the aim was to cause leadership change in the National Assembly.

“... We are compelled to alert the good people of Nigeria and the international community, that our democracy is in danger,” he said.

He warned of a return to the era of impunity and lack of respect for due process even as he urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, to order.

Sen. Abdullahi stressed that the Senate voted freely to elect its leadership into office and that the “continuing attempts to change that leadership through the wanton abuse of judicial processes cannot stand in the eyes of the world.”

He accused the Attorney General and some unnamed party leaders for being behind the current action, pointing out that they either lacked the understanding of the principles of separation of powers or cared not about the survival of present democracy. 

“We are in a state of economic emergency such that what the National Assembly needs at this time are executive bills and proposals aimed at resolving the crises of unemployment, currency depreciation, inflation, crime and insecurity,” he said. 

“Instead, we are getting hostile actions aimed at destabilising the National Assembly, distracting Senators from their oversight functions and ensuring good and accountable governance. 

“ Or how does one interpret a move in which the two presiding officers are being set up to be remanded in Kuje Prison or incapacitated from sitting at plenary through  a day-to-day trial on a matter that is purely an internal affair of the Senate,” he added.

Sen. Abdullahi said “the move against the two presiding officers”   were “clearly a coup against the legislature” and a plan to return Nigeria to the era of dictatorship.

He said “the Rules of the Senate and how the institution elects its leadership are internal affairs. “It has always been so since 1999. After the inauguration of the Senate, if Senators have objections to any part of the Rules, they can follow the procedure for changing it. 

“Senators of the Eighth Senate have no control on the rules applied in the elections of June 9, 2015 because until after their inauguration, they were only Senators-elect and therefore mere bystanders in the affairs of the Senate,” he said.

I have not been served, Ekweremadu

Meanwhile, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, yesterday said he had not been served     court summons on the alleged forgery of the Senate Rules.

Ekweremadu in a statement by his Special Adviser (Media), Uche Anichukwu said till date, nobody had served him with any letter of invitation by the police or court summons.

“We are, therefore, as surprised as other Nigerians at the current twists and turns by the same police one year after and also after they had since submitted to the Attorney General of the Federation, their investigation report, which neither indicted nor even made the slightest  mention of Senator Ike Ekweremadu. More so, that the petitioners never named Ekweremadu in their petition in the first instance.

“We wish to state that we read the reports of the so-called police invitation and charges allegedly preferred against Senator Ekweremadu; the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki; and others on the pages of the newspapers  like other Nigerians.

“Even as we try to reconcile the reports of the simultaneous police invitation and court processes, nobody has, till date, served the Deputy President of the Senate any letter of invitation by the police or court summons,” the statement said.

A group of senators petitioned the police in June last year alleging that the rules used to elect the present senate President Bukola Saraki and all the principal  officers were forged and called for criminal investigation.

Investigators from Force Headquarters opened investigation into the case almost immediately.

They were first summoned by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department in July 2015, to answer questions for their role in the alleged forgery of Senate Rules.

Also invited to appear before police investigators are senators Victor Ndoma-Egba and Ita Enang then chairman of the Senate Rules and Business committee in the Seventh Senate.

On June 7 this year, Force Headquarters renewed its invitation to former Senate President, Senator David Mark and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu and the two others.

The letter of invitation seen by Daily Trust was dated June 7, 2016 and signed by an Assistant Inspector General of Police, James O. Caulcrick on behalf of the DIG Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department.

The letter titled, “Re: Forgeries/fraudulent use of Senate Standing Order/Rules 2015 (As amended) by the Senate “ was addressed to the Clerk to the National Assembly.

It reads: “I refer to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police’s letter no. Cr: 300/x/FHQ/ABJ /Vol.185/98 dated 1st July, 2015 requesting the under-listed officials of the 7th Senate to report to the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department for the purpose of conducting investigation on the above subject matter.

“As at the time of writing this letter, none of the officials in the above 7th Senate list honoured the invitation to respond to the allegations, except the Clerks of the National Assembly and that of the Senate.”