Saraki, Dogara fault Akande over N/Assembly crisis

Akande had on Sunday alleged that Saraki and Dogara were aided by some oil barons and corrupt business men to emerge as senate president and speaker in order to protect their interest in the Buhari administration.
But Saraki said in a statement yesterday by his media aide Chucks Okocha that Akande’s allegations were not only mischievous but also malicious in an attempt to mislead Nigerians.
“We also wish to state unequivocally that it was wrong and mischievous for the statement by Chief Akande to link what happened on the floor of both chambers to some unnamed oil barons,” Saraki said.
Dogara said this through his media aide Turaki Hassan that it was unthinkable to think that a group of oil barons were behind the election of the speaker, since the first investigative motion passed under Dogara was on NNPC’s crude oil swap contracts.
He challenged Akande to name the oil barons that sponsored the election, adding that “Chief Akande’s allegation is both unfortunate and uncharitable.”
Akande had said, “Before the party knew it, the process had been hijacked by polluted interests who saw the inordinate contests as a loop-hole for stifling APC government’s efforts in its desire to fight corruption.
“Most Northern elite, the Nigerian oil subsidy barons and other business cartels, who never liked Buhari’s anti-corruption political stance, are quickly backing up the rebellion against APC with strong support. While other position seekers are waiting in the wings until Buhari’s ministers are announced, a large section of the South west see the rebellion as a conspiracy of the North against the Yoruba.
“Now that the whole conspiracy has blown open, it is doubtful if the present institutions of party leadership can muster the required capacity to arrest the drift. It is my opinion that President Buhari, and the APC governors should now see APC as a wrecking platform that may not be strong enough again to carry them to political victory in 2019 and they should quickly begin a joint damage control effort to reconstruct the party in its claim to bring about the promised change before the party’s shortcomings begin to aggravate the challenges of governance in their hands,” he said.
The former APC interim chairman also noted that “unknown to most APC members, while Senator Bukola Saraki was being adopted as the candidate for Senate President by certain old and new-PDP tendencies, the theory was being propagated that, like in most presidential democracies, the APC minority leaders in the old National Assembly (i.e. George Akume for the Senate and Femi Gbajabiamila for the House of Representatives) should automatically become Senate President and Speaker respectively, now that APC has the majority.
“Certain leaders felt that most past Senate presidents had come from Benue State, which Akume represented and that Benue State should be made to assume the traditional home of all senate presidents,” Akande said.