According to reliable information,there is a plot to have Godswill Akpabio removed from his position as Senate President when the National Assembly reconvenes on September 26 after a two-month break for its annual break.
This suggests that the controversy over the leadership of the Nigerian Senate has not yet been resolved.
According to information provided to this blog, the conspiring Senators are currently gathering in Saudi Arabia to finalize their strategy before the plenary resumes.
Aminu Tambuwal of the Peoples Democratic Party from Sokoto State and Senator Abdulaziz Yari of the All Progressive Congress are leading the charge.
When it came to winning the senate majority, Yari was Akpabio’s main rival, and Tambuwal was one of his most important supporters.
Another PDP senator from Nasarawa State named Mohammed Onawo is reportedly one of the organizers of the effort to persuade other senators to support the impeachment plan.
Akpabio’s purported subservience to the Presidency is being used as the primary justification for why he needs to be removed by the plotters, who claim to be fighting for the independence of the legislature.
According to reports, the senators are using President Bola Tinubu’s aggressive handling of the Niger coup, which stoked tensions in the country’s north, as justification for having a legislature that is able to check him.
The senators are also stirring up support for overthrowing the current senate leadership and substituting Akpabio with Yari by highlighting policies of the Tinubu administration that are seen as being anti-people (such as the removal of the fuel subsidy).
When the APC announced Akpabio as its candidate for the senate presidency in early June, Yari, a former governor of Zamfara, broke with the party’s leadership and insisted Akpabio was the best choice for the position.
Senator Suleiman Samaila, who represents Kano South and is a member of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), claimed that Yari’s group had carried out its own zoning of the senate positions.
He had claimed in a June interview with Arise Tv that “We did a conventional zoning ourselves, we picked Abdulaziz Yari from the north-west and we are planning to pick deputy senate president from south-east, it shows you that we have done balancing.”
Before the election, Yari said to a group from the South-South who paid him a courtesy call in Abuja that “only God installs a king,” taking a shot at the party leadership who preferred Akpabio over him.
However, because of the new plan being developed in Saudi Arabia, Yari and his group are no longer living their lives for God.
A highly placed source privy to the scheme told Gistlover on Friday night that Yari is wooing opposition senators to perfect his plan to take over the senate.
“They are currently in Saudi Arabia where they are perfecting plans to ensure Akpabio is removed,” the source said.
“They claim he’s too subservient to the president and he’s not allowing the senate to question the presidency and act as a check.”
While announcing the standing committees of the Senate before the break in August, Akpabio named Yari as chairman of the Committee on Water Resources while Tambuwal leads Housing Committee.
