Senate Coup: You May Be Next Victim, Ndume Warns Ekweremadu

• Tinubu, APC govs, ministers, others meet in Ibadan today

Sacked Senate Leader, Senator Ali Ndume, yesterday warned against alleged sustained violations of parliamentary procedures, which he said manifested in his sudden removal on Tuesday, warning that Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu might be the next victim of the alleged disregard for rules.

Ndume spoke yesterday against the background of an emerging realignment of forces intent on establishing the hegemony of the ruling All Progressive Congress in the leadership of the Senate.

The realignment fever has reverberated in the party’s South-west wing where its leading lights, including its National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the region’s governors and ministers as well as other leaders of the party meet today in Ibadan in a bid to close ranks and forge a common front in the cold permutations for power in 2019.

Ndume spoke at plenary yesterday while raising Order 43 of the Senate Standing Rules in reaction to his removal without his fore knowledge.
He said the Senate was a national institution whose sanctity must be protected by members, insisting that he had done nothing wrong to warrant such treatment.

He, however, admitted that he did not emerge as the Senate Leader because he was better than his colleagues, adding that if he had been confronted with visible allegations of wrong doing, he would have voluntarily resigned.

Disclosing that he had offered to voluntarily resign three times in the past; Ndume said he had received a list of 38 senators who signed the notice of his removal, noting that the signatures showed that 38 colleagues had lost confidence in him, a situation he said showed that he lacked the moral ground to remain in the office.

He added that even if it was only 10 of his colleagues who had signed the removal notice, the loss of confidence in him by 10 senators was enough for him to throw in the towel but insisted that he had done nothing wrong.

He said: “Mr. President, I discussed with you before the sitting that sequel to the event that happened yesterday in my absence – I went to pray, there was a change in leadership particularly affecting me and I felt it is important for me to be given the chance to defend myself. As I said, when I was nominated by my colleagues for the opportunity given to me to serve as the senate leader, I said one thing at that time and I want to repeat it today that as a senator, I am not better than anybody here and I also want to believe that all of us are equal in this Senate.

“I thank God for the way and the courage God had given me to carry-on with my responsibility for the past one and half years l served as the Senate leader. So, I want to thank you my colleagues for the confidence you had in me. I thank God that throughout my service as the Senate leader, most of the times, my colleagues casually would say, leader we are proud of you. I was not found wanting for anything that I know and because the unity of this Senate is more important than myself, three times, I offered to resign if that would bring peace but I believe that God’s time is the best.

“You (Ekweremadu) are one of those that even warned me here to stop saying that I would resign but yesterday, I was not around; change of leadership was announced. In fact, if the number of those that lost confidence in me is not up to this number and I was made to know, I would resign because I did not become a Senate leader in order to lose the confidence of any of you and that is why I am concerned about the loss of confidence because as far as I know, I have not done anything.

“But then, just like that, the Senate caucus has the right to say we have lost confidence in you and I think that should be now that I have said it. I think it’s on record that I did not do anything to the best of my knowledge. I did not do anything but as I said, consciously 38 of my colleagues signed the notice.
“So, if they signed that they have lost confidence in me at all, at least you will be confronted with allegations on what you have done and be given the chance to defend yourselves but as I said, since I have lost the confidence of some of you, even if it is 10 of you, then I have no moral ground to continue to lead this Senate because that means there are some people that are not with me.

“Having said that, I want to say that this Senate is an institutions that we must protect. How you protect the institution is to obey the rules and the tradition. If today, just like that, without telling somebody and he goes out and he’s removed…If it is Ndume today and it’s ok. It may be God forbid Ekweremadu tomorrow.

“So, what I am saying is that anytime our colleagues err in one way or the other, we should be given the chance to say ‘look, this is what you did and therefore, we have lost confidence in you but I thank God since there is nothing, I am grateful for that. So, I want to once again say thank you very much for the opportunity given me to serve as the Senate leader and I wish my brother, the new Senate leader well. We have been struggling for this for a long time. I hope and I wish you the best of service to this important institution,” he said.

But Senator Kabiru Marafa (Zamfara Central) disagreed with Ndume that his removal breached parliamentary procedure, arguing that the action was in compliance with Order 32 of Senate Standing Orders.
He added: “I just feel it should be put on record because somebody can ask me or ask any person that when you did something, you didn’t follow your rules and I want to say that as a member of this Senate, I was seated right here yesterday and I went through this thing and I know that Order 32 (6) provided for what we did yesterday.”
Earlier in the day, Senate President Bukola Saraki had said there was no crisis in the Senate over the removal of Ndume, saying the upper chamber was calm.

“There is no crisis in the National Assembly, things like this do happen and as you said the institution is bigger than everybody and I am sure that he and everybody else will always work for the interest of the institution and for the interest of the country. Everything is calm, solid and fine,” he told State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Responding, Ekweremadu thanked Ndume for his services to the Senate and congratulated him for accepting his removal in good faith.

“Let me on behalf of the rest of our colleagues, thank you for your services to the Senate and indeed to the National Assembly because you were a member of the House of Representatives’ leadership. At some point, you came to the Senate and also held very important committee assignments and then rose to become the Senate leader. Those are services we cannot wish away. So, we would like to congratulate you for the manner you have accepted the position of things…” Ekweremadu said.