Reports of impeachment conspiracies against Senate President Godswill Akpabio took a fresh turn on Tuesday, with suggestions that no less than ten former governors in the upper house, as well as a coalition of civic organizations, are now advocating for his impeachment.
Some pro-Akpabio senators were said to have gone on a troubleshooting mission to their colleagues on Tuesday, while others were said to be considering involving the Dr Abdullahi Ganduje-led All Progressives Congress APC National Working Committee NWC.
“The party is just reading a lot of things, but we have heard that some of the senators are thinking about meeting with our NWC to help resolve the issue,” an APC official said, adding that the party had not been officially told of Akpabio’s troubles.
While anti-Akpabio senators dismissed prior claims of intended impeachment as “phantom,” the Coalition for Parliamentary Democracy CPD demanded the Senate President to resign, claiming that he had fallen out of favor with his colleagues in the Senate.
CPD advised Senator Akpabio to quit pointing fingers of accusation and instead come clean on why his colleagues want him out, in response to assertions from Senator Akpabio’s office that “one South-South Governor” was behind the impeachment threat to remove him from office.
CPD on Tuesday accused Senator Akpabio of attempting to inflame the polity by pointing fingers, despite the fact that his colleagues had clearly cited his “failure to fit into the duties of a Presiding Officer and providing transparent and credible leadership as reason for their decision to move against him” in a statement issued by its National Coordinator, Dr. Menike Johnson.
Insisting that the country requires a very stable and united National Assembly at this critical juncture, CPD stated that Nigerians cannot afford a Senate that is afflicted by an unstable leadership that does not command the allegiance of the lawmakers.
According to the coalition, it is “disappointing” that instead of answering his colleagues, the embattled Senate President “is resorting to a face-saving measure of accusing a state governor; a very dangerous and unstatesmanlike venture that is capable of triggering crisis in the polity”.
“As Parliamentary watchers, we believe that Senator Akpabio should face the issues raised by his colleagues including allegations of lack of transparency, violation of elementary rudiments, conventions and processes of presiding over the Senate, diminishing the integrity of the Senate on financial matters and claims of preferentialism in the management of the Senate.
“The attempt to overheat the polity by blaming external individuals is therefore a self-indicting measure that does not provide the much-expected answers to very critical issue of leadership failure raised by senators against the embattled Senate President.
“Having admitted that he has lost favour with his colleagues; and having no answers to the very serious issues raised by the Senators which borders on leadership failure, we counsel Senator Akpabio to save the nation further trouble by stepping down as Senate President.
“Our nation is in a very critical moment and Nigerians cannot afford a Senate that is plagued by an unstable leadership which does not command the loyalty of the lawmakers”, CPD stated.
A message circulated among northern senators last Saturday by Senator Elisha Ishaku Abbo, had claimed that Akpabio’s loyalists, sponsored the news report about his rumoured planned impeachment in order to set Northern Senators against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Abbo had said!
“I woke up today to see over 10 mainstream Nigerian newspapers, all carrying news of a plan to impeach Senator Akpabio by senators from Northern Nigeria. The Whistler Newspaper went ahead to mention Senator Yari, Senator Tambuwal, and Senator Onawo, among others, as the senators behind the move.
As a Northern Senator and an official of the Northern Senators Forum, I make it bold to say that this news is deliberately planted and syndicated by the ‘camp’ of Senator Akpabio just to set President Bola Tinubu against the North.”