Nigerian Senate president and 2019 presidential aspirant Bukola Saraki has said he will not resign as the leader of the senate and that his position in the National Assembly is in the national interest.
National chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole has consistently asked Saraki to step down as Senate president following his defection to the PDP, Guardian reports.
“Saraki must vacate the position of Senate president as a matter of honour,” the APC chairman said.
“If he does not choose the path of honour he will be democratically removed as the president of the Senate. I am emphasing logic and political morality plus law.”
Oshiomhole claimed that it was unacceptable in any democracy for a minority party to provide leadership to govern the majority.
But, Saraki, who spoke to journalists during his visit to a former military ruler, Ibrahim Babangida in, in Minna, Niger State, said the APC lack the numbers to remove him as Senate president.
“One thing is clear, I will not sacrifice the interest of the country for my personal interest, and in the last three years as a senate president, I have demonstrated that my interest is second to that of national interest, I will not step down from the Senate presidency,” Saraki said.
“They know that we are in the majority, and whatever they want to do, they know that they don’t have the number.”
Saraki described the call for the National Assembly to reconvene for the purpose of removing him as unnecessary, stating that the Senate was properly adjourned and would reconvene as scheduled after its annual break.
“We did not adjourn the Senate in the dark, there was a procedure, where at the end of the session there was a vote and it was seconded that we should go on annual recess.”
“So it wasn’t anything done in the secret, everybody was there. It is not that some few people met somewhere and took the decision. Everybody participated and everybody took the decision that we should adjourn for a normal annual recess.
“The date that we agreed to resume is the same date that we resumed last year and the year before, so there is nothing abnormal about the Senate adjournment,” Saraki explained.
The lawmaker, who is also in the race for PDP’s presidential ticket said, his plan for Nigeria was to be a country rooted in the rule of law and democratic process.
