Forgery Suit: Senate issues fresh summon on AGF - Punch

The Senate, through its committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, on Tuesday, issued a fresh summon to the Attorney – General of the Federation, who is also the Minister of Justice, Mallam Abubakar Malami.

Malami was being invited by the senate for instituting a forgery case against the presiding officers of the upper chamber, and two top management staff of the National Assembly.


The senate had first summoned Malami, following a motion moved by Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi West Senatorial District, who relied on order 14 and 52, to demand the approval of his colleagues for his two prayers including the invitation of the AGF and the genuineness of the rule book.

Open the Prison's Gate, I Am Ready to Go to Jail - Saraki

The President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, said he was ready to lose his freedom to entrench democracy and stabilise governance in the country.

This is contained in a statement signed by him and issued on Monday in Abuja.

Saraki was reacting to the trial of the leadership of the Senate, which began on Monday, over alleged forgery of the 2015 Senate Standing Orders.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a Federal High Court in Abuja granted bail to Mr. Saraki, his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu and two others over the alleged forgery.

AGF to Saraki, others: Offer your explanation to court

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami (SAN) has responded to claim by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and others that the charge of forgery against them amounted to an abuse of the principle of separation of powers
The AGF, who justified his decision to initiate criminal proceedings against Saraki and three others over the allegation that they were involved in the forgery of the Senate Order 2011, urged the defendants to take their argument before the court.

Malami, in a statement issued late Thursday by his media aide, Salihu Isah, said he was withing his constitutional powers to initiate criminal proceedings against anybody where any of the investigating agencies has established a prima facie case against such suspect.

The AGF, who faulted the arguments by Saraki and others named in the charge before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), urged them to go before the court and explain their roles in the forgery case rather than accusing him of violating the Legislative arm.

Forgery: Senators stage walkout as Senate becomes divided over invitation of AGF

A former President of the Senate (name withheld) on Tuesday warned the Upper Chamber against inviting the Attorney General of Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, over the forgery suit against the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu.

The former Senate president, who is also the serving senator, gave the warning shortly before the lawmakers reached the decision to invite Malami to appear before the Senate.

PENDULUM: A Candid Response from the Senate President Bukola Saraki

My dear brother Dele, let me thank you most sincerely for your article last weekend, “My Candid Letter to Saraki.” I take everything you said in that article to heart and I must commend you for your candidness indeed and the sincerity of your intentions.

As you said in your article, you are someone I have known more by reputation than by any personal relationship, until recently when we struck up some personal acquaintance based on our shared political interests, especially during the last presidential election. However, I understand why you had to sound so defensive for knowing me at all and had to publicly map the boundaries of our relationship. We have got to that point in our country when we no longer believe that anyone could stand for anything based on principles and convictions alone. Moreover, in the growing culture of media crucifixion and presumed guilt; it is rare to find a voice like yours that calls for fairness and justice.

I would have simply sent you a text message or call you up for your candid advice to me, which I take seriously. But I feel the need to make some clarifications on some of the issues you raised. One of them was that in seeking to be Senate President, I struck a deal with the PDP and made it possible for one of them to be the Deputy Senate President. I know this is the dominant narrative out there, but it is far from the truth.

Joe Igbokwe - Nigeria’s Mendacious Senate Breaks My Heart

Let me sincerely tender an unreserved apology to the few decent men and women in the 8th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for using the above caption to describe them. I am led to use this caption because of the signals emanating from the 8th Senate since its inception last year. I am not trying to throw away the baby with the bathe water but to rebuke men and women who do not know what Nigerians need at this critical point in the nation’s history. I am trying to call to order these leaders who are yet to come to terms that Change is here to stay in Nigeria for the better. I am persuaded to call the Senators names because I have seen the Senate turning into a national broken mirror.

Ekweremadu Not EFCC’s Anti-Corruption Ambassador

The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been drawn to some reports in the print and online media, on April 20, 2016 claiming that the anti-graft agency has decorated the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, as “Anti-Corruption Ambassador”.

According to a statement issued to the Press by the Special Adviser to the Deputy Senate President, Uche Anichukwu, the purported decoration, was carried out by the EFCC National Assembly Liaison Officer, Suleiman Bakari who was quoted to have said: “

On behalf of my acting chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Mustafa Magu and the entire management and staff of the EFCC, decorate you as an Anti- Corruption Ambassador and formally present this frame, as a token of our appreciation to your person and office, and as a symbol of the institutional partnership between the EFCC and the National Assembly”.

Failure to Rescue Chibok Girls: NSA, Service Chiefs to Appear before Senate Today

The National Security Adviser (NSA), General Babagana Monguno (rtd), and service chiefs will today (20-02-16) appear before the Senate to explain the reasons they have failed to rescue the school girls kidnapped in Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, two years after. Making the announcement while presiding over the plenary yesterday, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, said senators would meet with the service chiefs behind closed-door today at 1p.m.

The scheduled meeting with the service chiefs is in accordance with the resolution passed by the Senate last Thursday in commemoration of two years anniversary of the kidnap of Chibok girls.

Last Thursday marked the second year anniversary of the abduction of 276 girls who were writing their Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) in the school by Boko Haram insurgents.

There is Grazing Reserve Commission Bill In The Senate As Saraki Presides Over Session Ahead Of CCT Trial

Senate President , Bukola Saraki on Tuesday briefly presided over the plenary session of the house before leaving to attend his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) sitting in Abuja.

He came into the chambers at 10.48am and the session took off with the opening prayer.

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, took over from Saraki when he left the seat.

During the session, the controversy trailing a supposed bill to create a Grazing Reserve commission for cattle breeders in the country was raised by the Senator representing Abia South Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe..

Abaribe, said to the best of his knowledge, there is no such bill by the name before the Senate.

Senators Saraki And Ekweremadu's Elections Are A Nullity By Jiti Ogunye

 This is a very interesting take on the State of NASS Union .... 

Since the National Assembly (NA)  erupted in crisis during the  "inauguration" of the 8th NA and the "election" of the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives on Tuesday, the 9th of June, 2015, a lot has been said and written about the issues in dispute in the crisis.  Unfortunately, rather than subject the "election"  in the NA, in particular  in the Senate, on that day, to a rigorous legal examination, in order to determine the legality of that election, many of the principal actors in  the NA leadership crisis or in the All Progressives Congress (APC) imbroglio, and a host of other  interveners have been discussing the  politics of the crisis and its  "mishandling" by the APC leadership, who, according to these interveners,  was hell bent on foisting a leadership on the NA. Many simple-minded gloaters have even reduced the serious issues thrown up by the crisis to a  celebration of the  " political defeat of  Bola Ahmed Tinubu", as if that alleged defeat was all that was needed to make the aberration that occurred in the NA acceptable.  In this intervention, we seek to redirect the discourse. We argue that the NA leadership crisis primarily should be discussed and resolved on the basis of enquiries as to whether there had been a violation of the  rule of law and the provisions of  the Constitution.   -    Jiti Ogunye

What transpired in the NA on Tuesday, 9th June, 2015 was a coup d'état. If it was merely a  coup d'état by  the treacherous members of the APC against their party's choices  for  the offices that constitute the leadership of the NA, we would not have been bothered. We are bothered because it  was also a coup d'état against the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the rule of law.

On that day, while Senator Bukola Saraki of the APC, who has confessed that, like a typical coup d'état leader, he sneaked into the premises of the NA at dawn, was "elected  unopposed" as the Senate President, by 57 Senators, in the absence of 51 Senators, who were "ambushed" into a fence-mending and ranks-closing meeting that eventually turned out to be a hoax, Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the People Democratic Party ( PDP) "defeated" his opponent, Senator Ali Ndume of the APC by 50 votes to 24 votes  ( with one abstention)  to clinch the post of the Deputy Senate President. Instructively, the APC controls the Senate with 59 ( now 58)  Senators, while the PDP has 49 Senators, meaning that 108 members ought to have congregated on the Senate Floor on the said date to constitute the leadership of the Senate. Alas, only 57 senators and 75 senators took part in the elections into the two offices.