Saraki, Dogara’s election not negotiable- Senator

Daniel Amasingha, Minna
The Senator representing Niger East senatorial zone in the NationalAssembly, Senator David Umaru, has said that the election of BukolaSaraki as senate president and YakubuDogara as speaker of the Houseof Representatives, is not negotiable. This is even as the NationalExecutive Council (NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC)holds this Friday.

Senator Umaru stated this when he spoke to journalists in Minna, NigerState capital and also attributed the leadership crisis in thenational assembly to undue interference from outside the chambers as
members were not allowed to elect leaders of their choice.

“The existing laws are very clear; it is the senators or House ofRepresentatives members who should elect who their leaders should be.

There is a very good reason for this and that is because the lawmakersare the ones to work with their leaders. The issue of the election ofDr. BukolaSaraki as senate president and YakubuDogora as speaker isnot negotiable. It cannot be negotiated outside the nationalassembly”, he said.

While insisting that the election of principal officers of thenational assembly has come to stay, Umaru explained that the issue wasnot that of disloyalty to the party, adding that, “nobody wants to bedisloyal to the party but that after the elections, the senators andthe members became that of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and notthat of the party”.

He argued that the party ought to have stayed away from taking sidesand allocating positions to individuals at the national assembly,explaining that this was not within the powers of the party.

Umaru dismissed the allegation that the Saraki group of like mindssenators traded away the position of Deputy Senate President to thePDP explaining that Senator Ike Ekweremadu had the majority of
Senators present at the time the election was conducted.

According to Senator Umaru, “It is not true, it couldn’t have been. Wewere lucky that the PDP members were reasonable at the time of theelection otherwise the result would have been more devastating”.

While assuring that the crisis will soon be over, Umaru described thesenate president as having the leadership qualities to lead thenational assembly in supporting President MuhammeduBuhari ineffecting the change desired by Nigerians.