Senator Elisha Abbo has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu worked so hard to make Godswill Akpabio the Senate President of the 10th Assembly, but it is left to Akpabio to manage the Senate effectively.
Abbo, representing the Adamawa North Senatorial District has accused the Senate President of trying to create discord between President Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and northern politicians.
He noted that Akpabio knows what it takes to maintain a peaceful Senate, akin to Ahmed Lawan, and “not blackmailing Senators from Northern region and using newspaper report to hoodwink the President.
“President Bola Tinubu worked hard to make Senator Akpabio the Senate President, but it is only Senator Akpabio who can effectively manage his colleagues, not Tinubu managing them on his behalf,” he said.
Recall that on Saturday, reports surfaced that plans were underway to impeach Akpabio as the president of the 10th Senate when the Senate reconvenes on September 26, 2023.
Abbo said, “I woke up today to find over 10 mainstream Nigerian newspapers all carrying news of a plan to impeach Senator Akpabio by senators from Northern Nigeria. The Whistler Newspaper even went on to name Senator Abdulaziz Yari, Senator Aminu Tambuwal, and Senator Ogoshi Onawo, among others, as the senators behind the move.”
“As a Northern senator and an official of the Northern Senators Forum, I boldly affirm that this news is intentionally disseminated and propagated by the ‘camp’ of Senator Akpabio solely to pit President Bola Tinubu against the North. I call on Senator Akpabio to rein in his camp, as the seeds of discord and deep ethno-religious division they are sowing will not bode well for the country. Why the North? Why in Saudi Arabia?”
“If Akpabio and his camp wanted a united Senate, much like Ahmed Lawan, they would have known exactly what to do during Senate Standing Committees allocation and supplementary budget resources allocation. But the camp of the SP continued to treat the senate as a conquered territory where the winner walks away with the spoils of war. A classic case of the winner takes all.”
He added: “How do you justify a situation where out of Category A Committees, only two were granted to his perceived rivals? How will you explain a senate where 83.1% of those appointed Chairmen of Category A Committees also serve as Vice Chairmen of Category A?
“How do you explain a third-term Senator being denied the Chairmanship of a Committee? How do you justify the leadership of the Senate, all being Vice Chairmen of Category A Committees? You cannot treat us as conquered people and then return to manipulate us with planted and paid newspaper reports to set us against the President.”