Date: 2017-08-11

Senate President Bukola Saraki said he sacked 98 aides to reposition his office.

Daily Trust had exclusively reported yesterday that Saraki sacked 98 of his aides including the director of protocol, and head of administration.

Saraki's Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu said the exercise wasn't a witch hunt but an effort to reposition the office of the senate president.

"The main purpose was for efficiency of that office; it's for us to have people that will help that office to work better. It's entirely the decision of the senate president to do the repositioning," he said. He said the Senate President knows those that were doing well, those that needed push and those that were not doing well. He said while some of the affected persons were sacked, some were redeployed back to the National Assembly where they left on secondment.

Asked of the number of affected persons and the entire aides of his boss, Olaniyonu said; "I don't have the details. A new set of people may also be joining at the end of the exercise."

It was however gathered that with the mass sack, Saraki's aides have been reduced from over 300 to a little above 200.

Daily Trust had exclusively reported in March, 2016, how hundreds of aides engaged by Saraki, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu and Deputy Speaker, Yusuf Lasun weighed down the National Assembly.