Former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki has accused incumbent Senate President, Godswill Akpabio of politicising and trivialising issues of leadership deficit in the Senate on his watch.
Saraki, in a statement on Sunday by his media adviser, Yusuph Olaniyonu, insisted that Akpabio failed the openess and transparency test in the handling of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s suspension.
The former Senate President faulted Akpabio’s resort to ethnicitising the call for investigation into Natasha’s sexual harassment allegations against him.
Rather, he noted that Akpabio has resorted to red herring by alleging attempts to remove him, a Niger Delta person, from office.
Saraki faulted Akpabio’s misreading of his earlier statement on March 1, where he called for proper investigation into the s*x harassment allegation.
The statement insisted that Saraki did not call for Akpabio’s resignation.
“Rather, he advised that Akpabio should act in the best interest of the legislative institution by ensuring that no reasonable person is left with any doubt about the fact that the allegations raised by the senator were investigated and justifiably dispensed with.
“The attention of the Abubakar Bukola Saraki Media Office has been drawn to the statement made by Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio while addressing the leaders of some “youth ethnic groups” on Friday that certain individuals from Kwara and Adamawa States want him removed because he is from the Niger Delta region.
“Ordinarily, Dr. Saraki would have ignored the statement as a sign of the times in which we now live. However, its underlying motive of politicising and trivialising a serious issue that threatens the integrity, credibility, and importance of the legislature is the reason why we think we should not allow the Senate President to create a misleading impression of the issue at stake in the all-important institution that the National Assembly represents in our democracy.
“Dr. Saraki in his last comment on the Akpabio-Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan crisis, never called on the Senate President to resign or step aside.
