• As Military allegedly destroys arms got from ex-militants

The spokesperson for the Senate Unity Forum, Senator Kabir Marafa, on Sunday demanded the immediate suspension of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, for allegedly creating controversies around the 2016 budget in order to blackmail President Muhammadu Buhari.

Marafa, who is also the Chairman, Senate Committee on National Identity and National Population, told a group of select journalists in Abuja that Saraki and his loyalists in the red chamber were condemning the budget in order to protest his ongoing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

He added that the budget controversies could be linked to the pending trial of Saraki at the CCT.

The Senate President, according to him, through the aid of fifth columnists, had been shouting at different times that the budget was missing, doctored or padded, hence, could no longer be passed as earlier planned.

He said, “Honestly speaking, if I am to comment on the controversy that has been trailing the 2016 budget in the Senate, I will say it is all the work of the fifth columnists there.

“We woke up one day and the Senate President just came and said there was no budget and that the budget was stolen, thereby embarrassing everybody. But the following day, the Speaker said his own was not stolen.

“Next, they said the budget is doctored; next, they said the budget is padded; next, they said there are discrepancies all over the place. We knew how they came into the leadership of the National Assembly or the Senate.

“Was it a coincidence that the issue of padding and everything just came up after the Supreme Court said go and face your trial?

“Suddenly, we started hearing that we cannot pass the budget as we promised, because there are discrepancies and so on and so forth.

“In a nutshell, all the noise about the budget is all about this issue of corruption trial or CCT trial. That is all; no more, no less.”

Marafa insisted that nobody in the Senate could suspend him over the interview he granted and published in the Sunday PUNCH edition of February 7, having read the contents several times and became convinced that he did nothing wrong.

He said, “Nobody, I repeat, nobody in that Senate, can suspend me over those remarks I made in the said interview. Rather, it is the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, that should be suspended by the Senate for turning things upside down within the last eight months.

“He started with the forgery of Standing Orders to illegally increase the number of standing committees in the Senate from 57 to 65 with attendant violation of ranking rules in their compositions.

“Above all, the Senate President should be suspended for refusing to resign as the Senate President in the face of trial on corruption charges at the Code of Conduct Tribunal and invariably battering the image of the Senate.

“… the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria gives us the right to say our opinion. We can air our views and nobody can deny us that one.”

Marafa, again, pledged to make himself available before the Senate Ethics Committee whenever he was invited because of his respect for the Senate as an institution.

He added that the committee actually invited him to appear before it last week Thursday but that he could not make it because he was in Kaduna to commiserate with his friend, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, who lost his mother.

He, however, pledged to surprise members of the committee whenever he appears before them that he was ready to catalogue all the misdeeds perpetrated within the last eight months in the Senate under the leadership of Saraki.

The Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media and Publicity, Alhaji Yusuph Olaniyonu, when confronted with the allegations against his principal by Marafa, promised to get back to our correspondent.

Later when he responded he told our correspondent that one of the senators loyal to Saraki would issue a statement on the matter on behalf of the Senate President.

Consequently, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim, a Saraki loyalist issued a statement where he urged Marafa to stop creating distractions with frivolous allegations but should rather go and defend himself before the ethics committee currently investigating him.

The Senator, who is representing Kwara South Senatorial District, in the statement wondered why it was only Marafa out of the 109 senators in the red chamber, that had been attacking the Senate as an institution and his fellow senators.

He said, “There is something wrong about the fact that out of 109 senators, Senator Marafa is standing alone abusing everybody, perhaps to continue to get relevance.

“Like he is always advising others to do, he should go and defend himself before the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges and stop creating distractions.”

Ibrahim, who is also the Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions, said he would not take issue with Marafa who is billed to appear before the Ethics panel on issues bordering on ethics, decorum and uttering of unguarded statements unbecoming of a distinguished senator.

In the meantime, men of 6 Infantry Battalion, Ibagwa, Akwa Ibom State, yesterday detonated and set ablaze a large cache of arms and ammunition recovered from ex-Niger Delta warlords.

Forty-two thousand, two hundred and seventy-two rounds of small arms and ammunition; 81MM mortars, 3-inch mortars, 60MM mortars, 40MM grenade and 14,447 butts were detonated and set ablaze.

The ceremony was witnessed by the Presidential Amnesty Programme, led by Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Brig-Gen Paul Boroh (rtd) and Akwa Ibom State government, led by Secretary to the State Government Etekamba Umoren.

Maj. Buhari Grema, who conducted the team round, said the arms and ammunition were recovered from Akwa Ibom, Delta, Bayelsa, Edo and Ondo states.

Grema said: “These are the small arms and ammunition  recovered by the Presidential Amnesty Programme from Akwa Ibom, Delta, Bayelsa, Edo and Ondo states. Cumulatively, we have about 48, 272 rounds mixed variation of small arms and ammunition. We shall be burning them here. We shall witness the burning.

“What we have here is medium calibre ammunition for those we cannot easily set on fire. For ammunition higher that 20MM calibre, we detonate. The ammunition here are higher that 20MM calibre. Here we have 81MM mortars, 3-inch mortars, 60MM mortars, and 40MM grenade.

“The butt here represents the 14, 447 weapons of various calibre that were destroyed in 82 base ammunition depot. We are able to transport the butt from Enugu to Akwa Ibom for the world to witness this symbolic event.”

Brig-Gen. Boroh (retd) described the destruction of the arms and ammunition as symbolic.

He explained that the Federal Government woud achieve a arms-free Nigeria.

“With this symbolic exercise, we hope arms will be a thing of the past in the region. We want to achieve a arms-free Nigeria.”

Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel said peace is needed in the country and not Niger Delta alone.

Emmanuel, who was represented by Umoren, said: “We pray that the destruction of the arms and ammunition will mark the end of agitation in the region.”

The governor urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to discontinue the amnesty programme, saying the peace of the Niger Delta region is the peace of the country.

Punch with additional report from Nation