Buhari: ‘President planning to imprison Saraki, Ekweremadu,’ Senate alleges

Saraki and Ekweremadu have been accused of forging the 2015 Senate Standing Rules are set to appear before the Abuja Federal High Court today, June 20, 2016.

The Nigerian Senate has accused the Federal Government of plotting to imprison Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu.

The Senate made the comment in reaction to charges of criminal conspiracy and forgery levelled against the duo.

The remarks of the upper legislative chamber were contained in a statement released by spokesman, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi on Sunday, June 19, 2016.

The statement reads in part

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

“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.

“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.

“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.”

Saraki and Ekweremadu have been accused of forging the 2015 Senate Standing Rules are set to appear before the Abuja Federal High Court today, June 20, 2016.