By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
Senate President Bukola Saraki was to kiss bye to his exalted position on Tuesday, August 7, 2018. But again, he survived; the second time. The coup against him got underway as earlier as 5am when operatives of the Department State Security, DSS took position at the National Assembly and blockaded it. Saraki was to be impeached before 2 pm by about 30 APC Senators who would have been allowed into the Senate Chamber.
The coup plotters did not trust Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and therefore kept him in the dark. Their calculations was that, though a brazen illegality considering their number (74 Senators are needed to validly impeach Saraki), their action would become a fait accompli once it was successfully executed. They believed that it will receive no rebuke from vacating President Muhammadu Buhari
Thus just like any other Nigerian not privy to the plot,The source was reliably told that the Acting President was jolted when news of the DSS siege on the National Assemble broke. Before long his phones buzzed with calls non-stop. Foreign Diplomats, especially those of Western countries called to warn of dire consequence if the democratic process in the country was truncated. Top Yoruba leaders, fellow academics, some political leaders across parties and several Christian leaders also called to express their bewilderment and wondered why he accepted to be saddled with the dirty job of using the DSS to topple the head of another arm of government.
Aware that his integrity as a Professor of law, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN and a Cleric was about to evaporate into odium, the Acting President put a call across to President Buhari who is in London for vacation. Multiple sources close to the presidency told the magazine that though Buhari would love to see the back of Saraki, the President denied authorizing the Director-General of the DSS, Daura Lawal to deploy his men to the National Assembly to that effect.
The source was further informed that it was at that juncture that Professor Osinbajo sought Buhari’s permission to sack Daura on the ground that his failure to do so and if Saraki was eventually impeached, the narration of how him, a professor of law supervised lawlessness and illegality as an Acting President will never fade from history books.
The Acting President was also said to have told his principal that if he( Buhari) chose to stick with Daura, he would immediately resign from the government and the APC and explain to Nigerians why he did so.
President Buhari, it was gathered, told his Deputy to do whatever he thought was necessary to arrest the volatile situation at the National Assembly. Minutes later, Daura and the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris were summoned to the Acting President’s office. Unknown to Daura, he lost his job immediately he stepped into the Acting President’s office for as soon as the meeting got underway, instruction was given for a press statement to be issued announcing his sack. According to sources, the same fate would have befallen IGP Idris had police personnel been involved in the National Assembly blockade.
As soon as news filtered in that their invasion of the National Assembly has cost their boss his job, the DSS operatives ended the siege and left the complex thus bringing the coup to an abrupt end. About an hour later, Saraki arrived the complex amid cheers from lawmakers and National Assembly staff.
Meanwhile, in what analysts describe as a face saving measure, APC supporters who earlier applauded the blockade of the National Assembly are now accusing Daura of being a double agent. They claim he worked in cahoots with Saraki by stage-managing the siege in order to win a favorable public opinion and sympathy for the Senate President. This came amid speculations that upon return to Nigeria, Buhari will re-instate the sacked DSS DG who is his cousin to office as he (the president) is not comfortable leaving the DSS which he considers a strategic security agency in the hand of a non northerner and a non Muslim.
Following Daura’s sack, the most senior officer of the Department, Mathew Seiyefa from Bayelsa state immediately resumed duty as the Acting DG of the DSS.
