Group alleges plot against Senate President Saraki

A pro-democracy group, the Dynamic Patriotic Citizens (DPC) has alleged that some activists have been paid by some powerful forces to stage protests against members of the National Assembly with the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki as the principal target.

The group said the plot was already coming to the open with last weekend’s call for Saraki’s removal over the 12-point resolutions directed at President Muhammad Buhari to act on, after a joint session of the two chambers where the lawmakers threatened to impeach the President if he fails to act.

In a statement by its National Secretary, Shehu Mohammed, DPC alleged that apart from receiving funding to stage protests against the legislature, the anti-Saraki activists have been assured of security back up by some officials in the Presidency to demonstrate and disrupt legislative activities in the coming weeks, as well as call for the impeachment of Saraki and other top leaders of the National Assembly.

The statement stated, “We have been reliably informed that some top officials in the Presidency are sponsoring faceless groups to stage protests against the Senate President and the National Assembly in order to blackmail them into withdrawing their threats against President Buhari and also disrupt legislative activities at the National Assembly and they are going to do this with full support from security agencies.

“We want to bring it to the consciousness of the Nigerian citizenry that the only difference between a dictatorial military government and a civilian democracy is the institution of the National Assembly otherwise known as the Parliament.

“Irrespective of our perception of the occupiers of this institution presently or at any given time, every effort must be made and sustained in order to ensure democracy survives in our land. People may go and come; the Parliament remains the rock of citizen’s defence against a civilian dictatorship.

“The planned protest, aside from being ill-conceived and out of order, is aimed at sabotaging our nascent democracy and the effort of lawmakers at ensuring checks and balances and good governance in the country.

“Recent events have confirmed that the 8th National Assembly is not a rubber stamp of the executive. Because one of the beauties of democracy is checks and balances, the legislative arm must be an active watchdog to the executive in order to curtail its excesses. Nigerians are proud that the present assembly is doing that and holding the executive accountable for its actions and inactions, before our democracy is slaughtered on the altar of incompetence and total disregard for the rule of law, which is an hallmark of any democratic society.

“We urge the National Assembly and the leadership of the Senate not to be intimidated by sponsored faceless groups masquerading as lovers of democracy, true lovers of Nigeria and democracy know that development and progress in this nation has been on hiatus since Buhari came to power and these true lovers of Nigeria will always stand on the side of the lawmakers to put the executive arm on its toes to make Nigeria work.”