By Olaoluwakitan Babatunde
Contrary to the posture by some All Progressives Congress (APC) Senators that they boycotted Senate plenary this week to protest the presiding over of the Senate by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it has emerged that the Senators abandoned plenary in an alleged failed bid to scuttle the Motion by Senator Dino Melaya (APC, Kogi West) seeking the investigation of the alleged rot in the recently concluded transfers of the federal government’s funds to the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
Ekweremadu presided over plenary in the 8th Senate for the first time following the absence of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who was attending the inauguration of the new Federal Executive Council (FEC) by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Villa.
However, once Ekweremadu mounted the Senate President’s seat after he declared open the two-day Senate public hearing on the probe of the power sector that morning, Senators Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North), George Akume (Benue North West) and Suleiman Hunkuyi (Kaduna Central) who were already conferring at the lobby of the Senate refused to go inside the chamber.
Hunkuyi in a brief hand-written statement entitled, “The Conspiracy Against APC Finally Consummated: As Mr. president Muhammadu Buhari Inaugurates New Federal Executive Council of the Change Agenda, PDP takes over the Hallow Chamber of the Senate,” said: “We notice with grave sadness the handover of the hallowed chamber of the senate today to the opposition party, PDP Ike Ekweremadu as the PDP helmsman to preside over the majority membership of the APC-led chamber.
“It is a very sad development that must be denounced by all well meaning APC members and leaders alike. With this, to show our protest as APC senators of the 8th senate, we wish to announce that we shall seize the attendance any sitting presided over by the PDP in an APC majority chamber of the 8th senate.”
But, contrary to their posture, an insider source in the Senate revealed that the Senators only used Ekweremadu to cover up a graver issue.
He said: “Senator Ekweremadu was not the issue in any way. The real issue was that Senator Melaye’s Motion billed for that morning sought the investigation of the 1 per cent commission collected by an e-collection agent, Remitta, thus allegedly ripping the Federal Government of N25 billion in the transfers of the federal government’s funds to the TSA domiciled with the Central Bank.
“The Senators acted on the instructions of their godfathers, namely a powerful national leader of the APC who hails from the South West and an APC governor in one of the North West States”.
The serving Senator from one of the northern states said the boycott aimed at scuttling the day’s seating was a last card by the group after they had earlier failed to expunge the Motion from the Order Paper.
“Look, you would notice that there was an unusual delay in the takeoff of plenary because the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Omoworare and his secretariat curiously refused to produce the Order Paper of the day even by past 11am. Yet, they produced the Votes and Proceedings of the previous legislative day. But for the patience and insistence of Ekweremadu and the rest of the APC and PDP Senators who wanted the matter probed, they would have succeeded”.
Other Senators who quietly left the Senate Chambers to join Senator Hunkuyi, the Senator representing Governor El-Rufai’s Senatorial District, when plenary eventually got underway were Senate Whip, Senator Olushola Adeyeye and Senator Oluremi Tinubu. The Senate eventually resolved that the 1 per cent commission charged by REMITA from the transfers was in gross violation of Section 162(1) of the 1999 Constitution.
The source insisted that the full details of the “so-called boycott” would come to public glare when the probe of the TSA deal unmasks the real faces behind the said scandal.
Meanwhile, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe has alleged that the commission earned by Remiite was over N60 billion, calling on the Senate to avoid partisanship on the matter.
He added: “Somebody made this decision and we must ask; who gave this order; who is that person in this country that is so powerful to direct MDAs to pay money into a private account? We are hearing that the money has gone up to N60 billion; one company is taking N60 billion of our money?
–
Source: http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/revealed-lawan-hunkuyi-others-boycotted-plenary-to-cover-up-alleged-godfathers/225551/
