Lawan group vows to challenge Saraki’s win

The new Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki was barely 24 hours on the seat when his opponents said he was elected illegally and announced they are challenging it in court.

Saraki contested for the Senate Presidency against the wish of his party, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) which had nominated Senators Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan as Senate President and George Akume as his deputy.
At about 10 am on Tuesday, the Clerk to the National Assembly Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa read a letter from the President authorising the inauguration of the 8th Assembly and he subsequently went ahead with the election.
The election took place while some members of the majority APC were away attending a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the International Conference Centre Tuesday morning.
Saraki, who didn’t attend the meeting with Buhari, teamed up with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party and a handful of his party members to get elected unopposed.
The PDP got the post of the Deputy Senate President for its effort.
The Unity Forum, a group of supporters backing Senators Lawal and Akume, at a press conference yesterday  rejected Saraki’s election
The group led by Senator Barnabas Gemade has accused the Clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa of carrying out illegality with the election of Bukola Saraki as Senate President.
Gemade said only 57 out of 108 senators-elect, across party divides, participated in the elections.
He said the Unity Forum would challenge the election through several avenues including going to court.
He said the group did not boycott the election as reported in the media yesterday but rather they were meeting with President Buhari and the party leadership at the time.
According to him, invitation for the meeting came through the office of the National Chairman of the APC, Chief Odigie Oyegun.
It conveyed the request of President Buhari to have a brief meeting with all APC elected senators and House of Representatives members at the International Conference Centre before the inauguration of the Assembly.
Gemade therefore said “..as loyal party members, we would take all necessary political and legal means to redress the anomaly.”
He said the process which produced Saraki as Senate President was unconstitutional and could not confer legitimacy on him.
“Our right to participate in the election of the Senate President is a constitutional right which cannot be taken by any person or group of persons,” he said.
“The Clerk of the National Assembly knowing fully well that the quorum for election of the senate President had not been met, went ahead to conduct an election that shut the door to about 53 other senators which would remain unacceptable until what would meet democratic parameters is done”, he said.
Earlier at the Senate session, Senators Kabiru Marafa (APC Zamfara Central) and Barnabas Gemade (APC Benue North East) had asked Saraki to make reasonable reconsideration of the process that brought him into office.
Both senators based their submissions on order 15 of the senate standing rule which deals with matters of personal privileges but they were ruled out of order by the Senate President.
However, in a counter briefing, the Like Minds Senators led by Dino Melaye (APC Kogi West) said the complaints by the Unity Forum were baseless.
He said even though 38 senators form a quorum for the Inauguration and election as specified in the senate standing order 10(1), 76 senators eventually attended the session.