Nigeria’s Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki has been advised to resign his position and go and clear the allegations leveled against him by the Code of Conduct Bureau for false declaration of assets.
The Northern Ethnic Nationalities Unity Congress (NENUC), which made the call yesterday, said Saraki’s resignation would protect the integrity of the office of the Senate President from disrepute.
The Code of Conduct Tribunal on Friday issued a bench warrant for the arrest of the embattled Senate president following a 13-count charge of corruption leveled against him by the CCB.
Most of the allegations go as far back as 2003 when Saraki was governor of Kwara State. But the embattled Senate president insists his travail is politically-motivated and questioned the timing of the resurrection of the charges against him.
Speaking with reporters yesterday, the National President and Convener of the group, Mr Bako Benjamin, fauled Saraki’s defence, expressing dismay that rather than appear before the tribunal to clear his name of the charges, he ran to the court to get an ex parte order stopping his trial until the determination of a ‘constitutional matter’.
“Let the Senate President come to equity with clean hands. Let him defend himself against all the charges levelled against him in the spirit of the new wind of change blowing across the country”, Benjamin said.
According to the group, the anti-corruption war spearheaded by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration would be futile if people like the Senate president continue to seek protection from the law courts rather than presenting themselves for the acid test.
Benjamin, who noted that the recourse to the court itself is an admission of guilt, said: “Seeking protection from the law courts is sending a strong signal that he (Saraki) has something to hide”.
The group, he said, has therefore given Mr. Saraki a three-day ultimatum to honourably resign to prevent impeachment proceedings against him or his eventual removal from the exalted office.
NENUC said Saraki’s continued stay in office is “capable of sending wrong signals to the international community and pose a huge question mark on President Buhari’s commitment to ridding the nation of corruption”.
Benjamin vowed that NENUC would not hesitate to mobilise other well-meaning Nigerians to march on the National Assembly in protest should the Senate President refuse to honourably resign from office within reasonable time.
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