• Senator Adamu: Meeting was needless
Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja
A nine-man committee constituted by the Senate last week over an allegation by its president, Senator Bukola Saraki that the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, wanted to frame him up in a cult case, met with President Muhammadu Buhari in the State House yesterday.
Led by the Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan, the committee which met with the president behind closed doors, was constituted last week Wednesday over Saraki’s allegation that the IG had perfected plans to frame him up following his plan to transfer some suspects involved in cultism in Kwara State to Abuja.
Saraki had said Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, called him that Wednesday morning and told him that he had intelligence on the IG’s plan, thus prompting the decision of the Senate to raise a nine-man committee to meet the president over the matter.
Saraki had told senators that the suspect were being transferred to Abuja to change their confessional statements and implicate him and Mr Ahmed over the alleged murder of 11 persons in Kwara State.
The Senate president said the move was on the orders of the IGP, because he ( Saraki) had led the Senate to declare him unfit for office and an enemy of democracy.
Speaking with some journalists in Hausa language after the meeting, a member of the committee, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, said the visit was unnecessary because a police officer had already stated in Ilorin that Saraki’s name was not mentioned in the case.
He, however, said they still had to visit the president despite the clarification by the police officer because already they had been given the assignment by the parliament.
According to Adamu, such a development was the fallout of ill-relationship between the executive and the legislature, pointing out that as a result of such unharmonious relationship, little matters are often blown out of proportion.
“The Senate President made some comments to the effect that he received a call from his governor, Abdulfatah, that some persons, suspected to be cultists who are undergoing investigation in Ilorin, Kwara State will be transferred to Abuja and it is becoming a problem. That was why the governor intimated him.
“That is why it was decided that we should come as leaders in the assembly to hear what is going on and if anything can be done about it. That cannot stop us from coming to see the president on the matter and to hear from him if you really know what has been happening at the assembly.
“If there is a harmonious working relationship between the executive and legislature and even the judiciary, all these types of things will not come up and even if they do come, not in the way they are coming up now.
“A small matter is often overblown and it becomes a problem for everybody. This is the result of some unnecessary utterances because things are not going as expected. So long as suspicion and accusations continue to exist within the minds of some people who ordinarily shouldn’t have them, these things will continue…
“It is surely politics. A senior police officer in Kwara had stated that the name of the Senate president was not mentioned and if that is the case, there is no need for all these emissaries but since we have decided that a team should come, we have come to hear from the president and he listened to us,†he said.
But unlike Abdullahi, Lawan evaded questions thrown to him over the matter, saying their visit to the president was not unusual, arguing that they would continue to visit him whenever it is necessary.
In the delegation aside Lawan and Adamu were the Chief Whip, Senator Olusola Adeyeye, Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, Senator Danjuma Goje, Senator Abiodun Olujinmi, Senator Sam Egwu, Fatimat Raji-Rasaki.
