By Ibrahim Abdul’Aziz
Yola
An Association, Integrity, Transparency and Good governance (ITAG), has described recent call by the Senate for the removal of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) as an attempt to get at President Muhammadu Buhari.
The association in a press statement issued yesterday in Yola by its chairman, Mustapha Atiku Ribadu, said the Senate, particularly, its leadership with corruption cases, was out to settle scores with the presidency.
“It is on record that the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) headed by retired AIG Ali Ahmodi, indicted the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, and his deputy.
“Also, Nigerians are aware of his (Saraki) case with the code of conduct tribunal which is still pending. The senators, instead of asking him to resign, they were even accompanying him to the court. No wonder, the former President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo described the members of the national assembly as ‘unarmed robbers’.
The association claimed that Saraki was just using Babachir as a mere smokescreen to get Buhari.
It also noted that the recent rejection of Ibrahim Magu as chairman of the EFCC by the senators after withholding the nomination for five months was a confirmation of plot to frustrate Mr. President.
“We wonder why since both the president and senate president are from the same political party, the ruling APC, he (Saraki) refused to advised the president to withdraw the name of the nominee whom he knew will not scale through.
“The senate president and his co-travelers are scheming to rubbish and humiliate Mr. President using law making as a coy. It even got to a point that the senate plans to amend the constitution to decentralise the police force, whittle down the powers of the president over commissioners of police by giving state governors the power of last command over the police.
“Saraki had positioned himself to take down Buhari’s men one after the other, starting from the SGF, then Magu, and it could be any person close to the presidency, next.”
While nothing that it is a group of like-minded individuals committed to good governance, the group declared support for the fight against corruption and urged Saraki to resign “as he had lost the moral ground to occupy this exalted office”.