Saraki vs IGP: Senate delegation meets Buhari at Aso Rock
President Muhammadu Buhari Monday meets with 10-man Senate delegation raised to address the ongoing impasse between the embattled Senate President Bukola Saraki and the Inspector-General of Police over a criminal case involving some suspected cultists arrested in Kwara State.
Members of the Senate delegation included former governors of Nasarawa (Abdullahi Adamu), Gombe (Danjuma Goje) and Akwa Ibom, Mr Godswill Akpabio.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly matters (Senate), Mr. Ita Enang also accompanied the senators to the meeting with the President.
It would be recalled that the Senate had on May 9 passed vote of no confidence on the IGP, describing him as “enemy of democracy’’ over his failure to honour its invitations twice.
Idris, however, asked the Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations), Joshak Habila, to represent at the Senate, who the Senators turned back insisting they wanted to see the IGP himself.
It therefore became a matter of personalized issue on the part of the Senate President and his pro-Saraki group of Senators as it was discovered the major reason they wanted to see the IGP in person was to hook-wing him over the arrest of Dino Melaye who was on trials over allegation of gunrunning and sponsorship of destabilization of Kogi State, which is one of 36 federating units that constitute the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a discovery that, according to many legal experts, spoilt the case of Saraki and his Senate against the IGP.
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, however emerged with another set of issue on Wednesday as he this time accused the IGP of plotting to implicate him and Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara in a murder case involving some suspected cultists.
The Senate on Thursday raised a 10-man panel to meet with President Buhari over the allegation leveled against the IGP by Saraki.
Meanwhile, after meeting President Buhari in the Villa on Tuesday, Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, told State House correspondents that the President had pledged to take appropriate action on the face-off between the Senate President, Bukoka Saraki and the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris.
Senator Lawan, who led the delegation, said Buhari told them that he had taken note and that he would take appropriate action on the issue.
A member of the delegation, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, who spoke in Hausa, said the row between Saraki and the IGP was about politics.
Asked whether he thought the rift was about politics, Adamu answered in th affirmative, saying “Of course, it is. You don’t need to be told, it is surely politics.”
He said there was no need to meet Buhari on the issue since a senior police officer in Kwara had said Saraki’s name was not mentioned.
A yet to be confirmed source however told The DEFENDER Tuesday night that President Buhari’s main position in the closed door meeting he had with the Senate delegation was that both parties should wait for the Police investigations to conclude.
