Some members of the House of Representatives representing the six geopolitical zones of the country on Wednesday urged Sen. Kabiru Marafa to respect the sanctity of the legislature.
This is contained in a statement given to newsmen by 11 members of the House of Representatives in Abuja.
The statement said Marafa (Zamfara Central), should subsume his personal interest under the popular will of the senators who elected the leadership of the Senate.
The reps said in the statement that their interest in the matter arose out of the realisation that Marafa’s personal attacks on the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, was misconceived.
They said that the attack had started to cast a slur on the integrity of the entire National Assembly over which the Senate President presides as Chairman.
“It is indeed regrettable that eight months after the contest for leadership in the Senate ended, Marafa and his group have remained in electioneering mode’’, it added.
According to them, Marafa’s claim that there are fifth columnists working against the interest of the executive in the Senate is not in order.
The statement said that any right thinking Nigerian knew that the budget as presented had a number of challenges which needed the collaborative efforts of both arms of government to sort out.
The reps noted that for Marafa to allude to the budget hiccups as the handiwork of the National Assembly is to say the least, unfortunate.
The News Agency of Nigeria NAN) reports that those who signed the statement included: Reps Kabir Ajanah, Mustafa Dawaki, Gaza Gbefwi, Supo Adeola, Adamu Kamale, Rita Orji, and Chukwueke Anohu.
Others are Reps Zakari Mohammed, Gabriel Onyewife, Ali Issa and Victor Nwokolo.
Marafa had boasted that not even the Senate President, Bukola Saraki or anyone else can suspend him from the senate in view of his recent remarks about the state of affairs in the Upper Legislative Chambers of the National Assembly.
“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, from forgery of Standing Orders, to illegally increasing the number of Standing committees in the Senate from 57 to 65, with attendant violation of ranking rules in their compositions.”
“And above all, refusing to resign as Senate President in the face of trial on corruption charges at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), and invariably battering the image of the Senate”, he said.
Following a point of order raised by Senator Isah Hamma Misau last week Tuesday, the Senate President had referred Marafa, to the Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions for sanction.
-dailypost