Senate Blast President Buhari Administration, Says Presidency Not In Control Of Agencies
According to PUNCH reports, the Nigerian Senate was put into confusion on
Wednesday when a lawmaker Identified as
Biodun Olujimi, accused President
Muhammadu Buhari of losing authority on
his administration.
motion on the face-off between Nigeria’s
security agencies raised by Dino Melaye,
Kogi-APC.
Officials of the State Security Services, SSS,
and the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, were involved in a
showdown on Tuesday when EFCC
operatives attempted to arrest the
immediate past Director-General of the SSS,
Ekpenyong Ita.
A similar scenario also played out when SSS
operatives prevented the anti-graft agency
from arresting the former Director-General
of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayo
Oke.
Presenting the motion, Mr. Melaye called on
the Senate to take an urgent action on the
incidents he described as “recipe for
national disaster”.
“Mr. President, the media and the social
media, print and electronics have been
awash with a disaster that took place
yesterday. The EFCC went to the residence
of the former Director General of the SSS,
Ita Ekpeyong, to effect an arrest and the
Directorate of State Security stopped the
EFCC from arresting him. That created
environmental brouhaha. The whole
environment and neighbours were stopped
from lawfully gaining entrance into their
homes because of this confusion.
“Same yesterday, the EFCC wanted to arrest
the former DG NIA, Mr. Oke. Also, the
officers of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency
stopped that arrest. We are not here to say
who is at blame. We have been embarrassed
before the international community. That
two sister agencies will engage in fisticuffs,
arrest and stoppage of arrests. Mr.
President, this is a recipe for national
disaster.”
Commenting on Mr. Melaye’s motion, Mrs.
Olujimi said President Buhari had lost his
authority as ‘nobody’ was in charge of the
current administration.
“Right now, we have a situation whereby
nobody is in charge of anything and we
cannot honestly blame anyone for what is
happening. The truth is that you cannot go
to the house of a security agent, a man who
had kept the secrets of Nigeria for so long,
and just try to arrest him like chicken.
“Mr. President, there has to be someone
that we can hold responsible when two
brothers are fighting. The person that is
supposed to be held responsible has not
done anything, is not doing his work.
“This is the first time we’ll see gross
irresponsibility in government whereby
there is no arbiter. No one to come in
between two agencies that belong to only
one person. The two agencies report to one
person, the presidency and now we find
them fighting on the pages of the
newspapers, it’s a shame. We are calling on
the President, he has to sit up, he should be
up and doing. Call these people to order.”
She questioned the president on why a new
nominee for the position of Chairman of
EFCC has not been sent to the Senate.
“Mr. President, you will remember that we
rejected Mr. Magu as Chairman of EFCC and
up till today nothing has been said about it.
The Senate is divided. Nobody has come out
to say we need to resolve the issue.
“After all, there are 170 million Nigerians,
all of a sudden, we are saying only one
person can do this job. Mr. President,
something has to be done, the presidency
has to be called to order. Nobody is in
charge of this government. Nobody is in
charge and somebody needs to be in
charge.”
Mrs. Olujinmi’s statement threw the house
into a rowdy session as senators on both the
ruling and opposition raised their voices to
defend their own.
Leader of the Senate, in response cautioned
Mrs. Olujimi against making such
statements, noting that President Buhari is
in “full control of the government of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria.’
“Even when Mr. President was away to
attend to his health, the Acting President,
Yemi Osinbajo, was in full control.
“The statement by our colleague is
unacceptable. It’s not right, it is wrong,” he
said amidst a roar of ‘Yes’ from senators
who raised their voices in support.
“My opinion about what happened is that,
could it be that EFCC did not get the right
kind of document to arrest those people?
“If they did, then the security agencies are
wrong. Only the investigation would reveal
this.”
The senate resolved to set up an ad-hoc
committee to investigate the clashes
involving the SSS, EFCC, and NIA over the
arrest of Messrs. Oke and Ekpeyong and to
report its findings in two weeks.
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