By Uche Mbah
There are indications that some Senators from the Southern part of the country are mulling the idea of the impeachment of the Senate President, Dr. Ahmed Lawan, due to what a national Assembly source described as his “sitting on senators’ allowances and starving them of money”.
The allegations are that the approval speed for the Senators’ entitlements have been reduced to snail speed, and Senators are hurting.
“Many senators are scouting for an acceptable reason to present to the public as the motivation for the impeachment.
“And he had unwittingly provided it with the recent utterance against the position of the Southern Governors on open grazing and restructuring”.
Lawan had condemned the Southern Governors’ position, a situation that has made him the butt of attacks in the social media.
Before the attack, Senators were said to be considering the use of the security situation as a bait, claiming that the Upper Legislative Chamber ought to have taken a tougher stand against the way the issue of insurgency is being handled, and that President Buhari, whose table the buck is expected to stop, is being shielded by the Senate leadership from being held accountable.
This Magazine has been following the movement through sources within the National Assembly, and can confirm that meetings have been held at different times and different locations in connection with this.
Southern Governors have been meeting on the issue, and North west Senators who stand to gain from the impeachment due to their numbers are also said to be keying in on the project.
The first hint of public confirmation came through the member of the House of Representatives(North-East/Esan South-East constituency of Edo state), Hon. Sergius Ogun. Ogun first appeared on ‘The Morning Show,’ a programme on ARISE NEWS Channel, claiming that there are plans to oust Lawan.
“We are in the process of reviewing the constitution and the Chairman of the National Assembly (Lawan) is rebuking, chastising the Governors for saying that they should restructure the country. So, if you ask me, any right-thinking person will believe that the process is dead on arrival. He doesn’t believe in it; why would he talk like that?”, he said.
“For him really to be talking to Governors representing a section of the country like that, he’s not fit to be the Senate President, and I strongly believe that the Senators from the South will do something about it this week.
“We are even talking about impeachment? Who is the leader? The Chairman of the National Assembly. If we are going to start any process of impeachment of the President, who is going to superintend over that? The same man we are talking about. I think he should go and I am sure the process has started.”
The move, however, will be a difficult nut to crack. It is not likely the angry Senators will have the numbers to carry out the plan to its logical end. Lawan is, therefore, not rattled.
Ogun is from the South- south geopolitical zone.
This Magazine gathered that although signatures are, allegedly, being collected, they are still short of the required majority because there has been counter moves by the loyalists of the Presidency, who are working round the clock to break the ties.
