ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki, revealed, on Saturday, how he hid himself in a car for four hours on 9 June to evade security cordon and gain access into the National Assembly.
The Senate president, who disclosed this in an interactive session with select media men, said he got reports that some persons were moving to prevent him from entering the National Assembly such that he would not be available to be nominated for the office.
He said it was surprising that some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) would converge on the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja when they were supposed to be sitting inside the National Assembly chambers.
He stated that the development was all the more confounding because there was no message from the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA) postponing the inauguration.
He insisted that he never got any message inviting him to the ICC for the said meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said: “First of all, as regards the meeting (at ICC), on the morning of the inauguration, I didn’t finish meeting until 4:00 a.m. of that day and I had got information that efforts would likely be made to make sure I didn’t get access into the chambers.
“So, as early as 4:00 a.m., I had made contingency plans that I must get into the National Assembly because the plan was that senators-elect should go to the Transcorp Hilton Hotel between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. to proceed to the National Assembly.
“But I was advised that it would not be safe or secure for me to do that, because some people made thought if I didn’t get into the chambers, it would not be possible for me to be nominated, for the nomination to be seconded and for me and to accept the nomination.
“I can tell you today that I was in the National Assembly Complex as early as 6 O’ Clock in the morning and I stayed in a car in the car park, from six in the morning till quarter to 10:00 a.m. This is the truth. I stayed there and I was there with no communication whatsoever.
“So, for anybody to say they spoke to me to go to the ICC was not true, because I didn’t even know what was going on. All I was monitoring was how people accessed the complex.
“It was at quarter to 10:00 a.m. that I got information that the Clerk to the National Assembly CNA had entered the chamber. So, I got out of the small car, stretched myself and put on my babariga because I didn’t have it on before then.
“I walked from the car park into the chambers…That was why some of you would have seen that I looked very tired on that morning.
“Even when I was in the chambers, I didn’t know what had transpired earlier on. The only thing I observed was that it appeared that some of our senators were not in the chamber.
“Before I knew it, my election had come and gone. Even my people were worried. It was only when I got into the chambers that they were relieved.”
‘I had no alliance with PDP’
The Senate president also dismissed insinuations that he entered into a form of alliance with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to secure victory, adding that though he campaigned across party lines, he had no hand in the emergence of PDP’s Ike Ekweremadu as deputy Senate president.
He stated that the absence of many APC senators in the chamber on the day of election made Ekweremadu’s emergence possible.
According to him, only 24 APC Senators were present during the election of Senator Ekweremadu, while the PDP had more than 40.
He further said: “Never in our wildest imagination did we envisage that some senators would not be present on the day of the inauguration.
“In my own view, and in the view of some of those who worked closely with me, I worked hard for my election. I had direct contact with every single senator, one on one; weeks leading to the election, I did not rely on anybody. I worked hard, both in our party, the APC, and out of it.
“First of all, the PDP senators had announced to the public that they were supporting me, without even meeting me, because in their own meeting, majority had decided to vote for me.
“In their own interest, strategically, they decided that, look, this is a fait accompli because 30 of their own senators were going to vote for this man anyway and the remaining felt it was better to join.”
He noted further that: “it is unfortunate that we have a PDP man as deputy Senate president. It is painful. It is painful for any APC member, because we went through the struggle. That was not what we signed for. But it has happened; it is unfortunate and it is not fair to put the blame on one side, because it is a combination of errors and miscalculations that led us to have, in that morning, some senators at another place instead of being there.
“So, to suggest that it was out of a desperate act to emerge is what I reject completely and those who followed the events would know that I didn’t have that deal to emerge.”
Credit: Tribune (Nigeria)
