In 2015, Kwara born Senator Bukola Saraki drove his car into the national assembly complex parking lot and killed the engine. No one noticed him. They didn’t have to.
He wasn’t supposed to be in there. But there he was, calculating, plotting and scheming. He was also there a little too early for anyone’s liking.
When the senate doors eventually flung open for the day’s business, Saraki jumped out of his car and hurtled in, one mission on his mind.
A few kilometers away, senators elected on the platform of the APC were putting finishing touches to their plot to install Yobe born Ahmed Lawan as Senate President. The APC senators had godfather Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the APC hierarchy in their corner. Surely, they had this in the bag, they thought.
Saraki had 41 PDP senators and a sprinkling of renegade APC senators who had broken ranks with their party’s National Working Committee (NWC). It was all he had, but that would prove more than enough.
The APC senators who had their party’s blessings to choose a senate president, were still locked in their plot when Saraki was announced president of the 8th senate; with new friend Dino Melaye playing hype man all around him.
Saraki has just re-enacted his 2015 stunt in July of 2018.
There was a plot to impeach Saraki as senate president because he’s been openly flirting with the PDP and showing the opposition party plenty of skirt. The plan was to strip him of the senate presidency before his defection, sources say.
On the night of Monday, July 23, 2018, signatures were collected to impeach Saraki after he had made it clear in so many words, body language and actions that he’s got one foot out of the APC door. Saraki always knew that trouble was lurking and with the APC, he’s learnt to always remain ahead of the game.
As the police surrounded Saraki’s residence and convoy in the Lake Chad area of Abuja in the early hours of Tuesday, July 24, 2018, the senate president was arriving the national assembly in a rickety cab; all in a bid to scupper his planned impeachment. In other words, he wasn’t even home when the police came knocking. He wasn’t a part of the convoy either.
Minutes later, Saraki was reading out the names of 15 APC senators who were defecting to the PDP.
“And if it was by the plan, I too, would not be here. It was just by the intervention of the almighty God that I was able to get myself here”, Saraki told his colleagues at the commencement of plenary.
It is striking that Saraki didn’t read out his name from the list of defectors. But rest assured he will eventually rejoin the PDP from whence he came. The man is only bidding his time and waiting for the right time.
Minutes after he read out the names of 15 defectors, Saraki told Reuters that chances of his leaving the APC are “very, very high”.
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