President Muhammadu Buhari has escaped impeachment from the Nigerian Senate over the worsening insecurity in the country.
The president who returned from Liberia on Tuesday, where he attended the country’s Independence Day ceremony, has come under severe criticism from not a few Nigerians for his failure to rein in bandits and terrorists who have taken over many parts of the country, particularly in the North, and are now trying to launch an attack on Abuja, the nation’s capital.
On Tuesday, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC raised an alarm of plan by Boko Haram, Islamic State’s West Africa Province, ISWAP and bandits to attack some States in Nigeria including Lagos, the nation’s economic capital.
According to a memo signed by the Deputy Commandant General, DCG of Operations, DD Mungadi dated July 24 titled “Heightened Plots By Terrorists To Stage Coordinated Attacks in Parts of the Country,” the NSCDC said it is in possession of intelligence showing that the terrorists “have mobilised fighters and high calibre weapons particularly Rocket-propelled Grenade (RPG) launchers, Anti-Aircraft (AA) guns and General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMGS)”.
Recall that terrorists, last month attacked the Kuje Correctional Centre where they freed over 40 boko haram prisoners and over 400 other inmates.
The prevailing insecurity situation in the country is said to have riled many senators who mobilized themselves with the intention of removing Buhari from office.
The magazine learnt that the move enjoyed a bipartisan support from senators, who on Tuesday expressed their unhappiness with the security situation, particularly following the attack on Presidential Guards Brigade, in Abuja. Many soldiers were killed during the attack.
According to Vanguard, the senators were said to have approached Senate President Ahmad Lawan of their intension to raise the matter at Plenary, but were rebuffed by Lawan who told his colleagues that the issue was not in the Order Paper for the day.
A source said: “We were not happy that the issue of insecurity did not come up today (yesterday) for discussion and with this, we shouted out to the President of the Senate that it must be discussed and when he refused, we threatened that we will begin impeachment move against President Buhari because the country is not safe.
”This forced Lawan to succumb, assuring that the matter will come up for discussion tomorrow (today) in the open and not at closed door session.”
This is not the first time the National Assembly has tried to impeach Buhari. In 2016, plot by some lawmakers to remove the president for mismanaging the country was thwarted by then Senate President Bukola Saraki.
Also in 2018, Saraki averted yet another impeachment of President Buhari after some senators accused him of spending the funds in Excess Crude Account without the approval of the National Assembly.
Matthew Uroghide, Chairman Senate Committee on Public Accounts, had moved the motion for the impeachment of Buhari for approving the withdrawal of $496 million from the ECA without the lawmakers’ consent.
Citing Order 15, 42 and 52, Uroghide said the approval without National Assembly’s input was a violation of the Constitution and should be punished with impeachment.
He said: “There are serious consequences for violation of our Constitution. As a consequence, the only thing we can draw from on this is that we call on you, Mr President, to invoke section 143 of the constitution. Because, what it means is that this matter is not to be investigated. It is clear that this offence has been committed by Mr President.
“I want this Senate to resolve that what the President did is procedurally wrong and a violation of our constitution, it must be condemned and of course, the consequences of section 143 of our Constitution should be invoked. I so move, Mr President.”
