Why Saraki will not resign yet, by Ndume

• Senators laud Osinbajo as acting president
SENATE Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume, has brushed aside suggestions that the embattled Senate President, Bukola Saraki, should step down from his position in view of his impending trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), saying he would do so only if convicted.

Ndume stated this during a chat with correspondents after he led a delegation of pro-Saraki senators known as “Like Minds” to a meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House, yesterday.

Besides, Ndume commended President Muhammadu Buhari for willingly transmitting power to his vice, Osinbajo, before travelling. The Senate leader explained that it would be hasty to condemn Saraki before outcome of the tribunal’s trial since he had not been pronounced guilty.

Ndume, who was accompanied by some members of his “Like Minds” group which supported Saraki during the contest for senate presidency, said he would not resign until his innocence is proven otherwise by the tribunal. He insisted that their closed-door meeting with Osinbajo was not to find a political solution to the travail of the Senate President but to exhibit their solidarity with the vice president.

“This government is our government. I am the Senate Leader in this government, so my coming here today is not supposed to be a new thing. My coming here should even be more regular. This is not the first time we are coming here, but this is the first time we are having the vice president as Acting President. That is one of the reasons we are here, we are setting a new example. During the previous government, the President would just go and leave the place blank.

“But this time around when our President goes for a few days, he would transmit to all Nigerians that the vice president is to act as the President. So we came for the regular consultation. There is nothing new about it and we will be doing more of this.”