Date: 2016-04-06

The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, got yet another lifeline in the midst of the controversies surrounding his trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) as his colleagues senators rose today from a meeting and declared that they would protect the seat of the Senate President currently occupied by Saraki with the last blood in their veins.

This is not the first time the overwhelming majority of senators have lined-up their support for Saraki on the ongoing trial before the CCT. Arising from a meeting at the Asokoro residence of Sen. Magartarkada Wammako, the Senator representing Sokoto Central Senatorial District, the Senators said for whatever it is worth, they would continue to stand firmly behind Dr. Saraki and ensure that his Senate Presidency seat is protected.

While addressing the media in Abuja on Wednesday on behalf of other senators, Senator Ibrahim Abdulrafiu reiterated their earlier stance that Saraki's trial was a 'mere persecution' and an attempt to tarnish his image in ways not experienced before.

"We have since discovered that the trial of the Senate President is a mere attempt to blackmail him and make him look bad in the court of public opinion. No more, no less. A dispassionate analysis of the proceeding of the CCT yesterday has pointed to the fact that the APC led Executive is still embittered against Dr. Saraki over the manner of his election as the Senate President."

"This is why we are standing for the Senate President and we will so do till the very end. We are doing this not for him but for the institution of the Senate that he imminently represents. We will never allow any arm of government to rubbish the cherished autonomy of the Senate."

However, commenting on the calls in some quarters that the Senate President should resign from his position, the senators insisted that the calls are borne out of ignorance and pure hatred. The Senators described the calls as 'wicked and unfounded.'

"For those calling for the impeachment of the Senate President, we urge them to avail themselves of the provisions of the law relating to such a sensitive step. As far as we are concerned, there is nothing like that on the table, and if anybody is trying to import that from the outside of the Senate, God helps them. All I know is that they will have to produce as many as a 100 senators to achieve that aim. As long as they don't have the majority, the call is a tall dream that will remain a figment of the imagination of the groups and their sponsors."

Many Senators were interviewed on the ground of the CCT where the trial is happening and they affirmed that officials of executive are busy pushing to persecute Saraki and have abandoned governance which is why there is scarcity and nothing seems to be working in the country.