*Says chairmanship of Petroleum Committee not a reason he joined Saraki’s camp
One time fiery critic of the Senate leadership, Senator Kabiru Marafa (Zamfara Central), has said President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) were the reason he backed down on opposition to Bukola Saraki as Senate President.
Marafa said the appointment he got as Chairman Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downsteam), considered as one of the juiciest, was indeed, not the reason he dumped his principle to stop opposing the Senate President and others in the leadership cadre. Marafa, a known supporter of President Buhari in the Senate, became a thorn in the flesh of the Saraki leadership almost immediately after the inauguration of the 8th Senate, faulting every move and plans by the leadership to consolidate.
Marafa and other aggrieved Senators had dragged Saraki and other top member of the Senate leadership to court, accusing them among others of forging the Senate documents to get elected. Senator Marafa stated this in an interview with newsmen while reacting to an allegation by a Coalition of Northern Youths that he has become a turn-coat by ending up in Saraki’s camp after dumping his principle. Marafa, according to initial reports resolved to dump the opposition camp in the Senate on July 21, 2016 after he was named the Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) by the Senate President as against that of National Identity and National Population earlier assigned him in November 2015.
He told newsmen that both the beginning and the end of the fight between his group then, the Senate Unity Forum (SUF) and the Like Minds supporting the Saraki-led Senate leadership were determined by the stance of the party at every given time. He said: “I did not fight Bukola Saraki because he is Saraki, I fought because my party said I should fight and when my party said I should stop, I stopped. The decision to end all these hostilities and bring the two sides together was taken by the APC and President Buhari himself.
It was not me or anybody. “The party said ‘my children come together, this one has won the Senate President, you this side give them the Senate Leader and Deputy Senate Leader,’ and it was done. Was that not what happened? ‘Now you have formed committees, give them some committees,’ was that not what happened, I don’t know why Nigerians forget things easily. It was the party and President Buhari that intervened.
“So the assertion that I was given a juicy committee to stop fighting the Senate President is rubbish, am I not entitled to committee?, I am even more qualified to head committees by our rules, I am a ranking senator, I was the vice chairman of the Petroleum Upstream Committee in the 7th Senate for four years, it is my turn to become the chairman now.
0 $type={blogger}:
Post a Comment
Please no use of abusive or hate speech