The National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), United States of America (USA), has called on Senate President Godswill Akpabio to resign for his alleged poor handling of Senate business.
The Coalition alleged that Akpabio, who was installed as Senate President by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has completely subjugated his colleagues to the government and undermined the legislature’s independence and integrity in Nigeria.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Mr. Lloyd Ukwu, Executive Director of NADECO USA, accused Akpabio of exhibiting complete disregard for the Standing Rules of the Senate in terms of the order of processes, robust debates during plenary, and comprehensive vetting of executive messages and bills.
Ukwu urged Senators to initiate impeachment proceedings against Akpabio “for making the upper chamber a laughingstock through naivety, immaturity and eagerness to please the executive, irrespective of the repercussions of his actions on the Senate as an institution and democratic governance in Nigeria.”
He said: “Akpabio is fond of keeping communications from the President which are supposed to be read during announcement time till the end of plenary, like he recently did when he announced the last three ministerial nominees by the President towards the tail end of plenary.
“Only recently, the Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC – Borno South) and Senator Mohammed Ogoshi Onawo (SDP – Nasarawa South) openly accused Akpabio of not giving senators adequate opportunity to interrogate and scrutinize bills, especially money bills, and warned that history would judge him for approving executive requests and passing important legislations posthaste.”
Ukwu maintained that if Akpabio does not resign or Senators do not impeach him, NADECO USA will be forced to rally its members in the United States and Nigerians in the diaspora for a mass movement to ensure that he leaves office.
