*What we have is Senate without Senators, Respondent challenges Senators over impeachment move
*America will laugh at us, what if they cancel the sales? – He asks
*Shehu Sani says PDP colleagues ignorant of Buhari’s effort on national security
*Tackles them on impeachment motion
*As Abu Ibrahim notes Obasanjo, Jonathan drew funds from ECA without Senate approval
*Describes call for impeachment as “PDP conspiracy”
At Thursday’s plenary, Senator Abu Ibrahim, who described the impeachment call as “a PDP conspiracy,” challenged the opposition lawmakers to name any state governor who benefited from the withdrawals from the ECA and sought the approval of the state House of Assembly before spending the money.
National security reason provided by President Muhammadu Buhari for his anticipatory approval of $496 million for the purchase of Tucano jet fighters for the Nigerian armed forces to prosecute the anti-terrorism war in the country not withstanding, some People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s members of the Senate have asked that the process to impeach him be started.
They are Senators Aisagbonriodion Mathew Urhoghide and Chukwuka Utazi.
Senator Aisagbonriodion Mathew Urhoghide, who moved a motion at the plenary on Thursday, specifically urged President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, to allow the chamber to invoke Section 143 of the Constitution.
Urhoghide stated that the President had breached Section 80 of the Constitution which stipulates that all government’s spending must be appropriated by the legislature.
Senator Matthew Urhoghide of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) said: “It’s a violation of Section 80 subsection 1, 2, 3, 4. The procedure of the expenditure is wrong. There ought to be an appropriation before such an expenditure. I hereby request that the SP, @bukolasaraki should invoke Section 18 of the Constitution,” he said.
Urhoghide was quickly supported by another PDP Senator in Chukwuka Utazi, who rose to second the motion for impeachment of the President that he moved.
“I rise to second this motion with Section 80 subsection 2 and 3. We are still on the appropriation bill, we have not finished it, Service chiefs were appointed without the approval of the Senate,” Senator Chukwuka Utazi.
“This Tucano helicopters are to be brought in 2020, why include it now in appropriation. This is an impeachable offense.”- Senator Chukwuka Utazi.
Also, Senator Chukwuka Utazi stated that it was time for the legislature to be decisive.
They were however countered by Senator Shehu Sani who said, “We are not ignorant of the security challenges that is going on in the country and how it affects the stability of our country. I appreciate the efforts of the FG to bring an end to the killings in Nigeria but this is no reason to breach the Constitution.”
Saraki had on Wednesday read a letter from Buhari in which the President disclosed that the money had been withdrawn and paid to the treasury of the United States for the 12 Super Tucano aircrafts, and sought that the amount be included in the 2018 Appropriation Bill currently being worked upon in anticipation of legislative approval. This, he said, was done to beat the deadline for the arms deal.
The planes delivery will take immediate effect but will be fully delivered in 2020.
The President said, “Recently, approval was granted by the United States government but with a deadline, within which part payment must be made otherwise the contract relapses. In the expectation that the National Assembly will have no objection to the purchase of these highly specialised aircraft, which is critical to national security, I granted anticipatory approval for the release of $496,374,470. This was paid directly into the treasury of the United States government.
“I am therefore writing seeking approval of the Senate for the sum of $496,374,470 (equivalent to N151,394, 421,035) to be included in the 2018 Appropriation Bill which the National Assembly is currently finalising. The balance of the requirement for critical operational equipment is still being collated from the different security services and will be presented in the form of a supplementary appropriation bill in due cause.”
Senator Shehu Sani of the Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the expenditure as “a gross abuse of the Constitution.”
While Sani stated that he was not in support of the impeachment call, he asked that the money, which was taken from an account not of Consolidated Federation Account (CFA) but Excess Crude Account (ECA) owned by the Federal, States and Local Governments, should be refunded after it has been paid to the US treasury and the transaction started afresh to allow due process.
It will be recalled that owners of the account had given President Buhari approval recently to spend $1 billion from the ECA to execute equipment to for military to augment their ongoing war against terrorism in the country.
Senator Abu Ibrahim, however, recalled that former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan made withdrawals from the ECA without seeking National Assembly’s approval.
The DEFENDER gathered that the sitting Senate President Bukola Saraki was active member of the 7th Assembly that watched Goodluck Jonathan draw money from same Excess Crude Account (ECA) without approval from the Senate and none complained.
At Thursday’s plenary, Senator Abu Ibrahim, who described the impeachment call as “a PDP conspiracy,” challenged the opposition lawmakers to name any state governor who benefited from the withdrawals from the ECA and sought the approval of the state House of Assembly before spending the money.
Some Nigerians, who reacted to the call for Buhari’s impeachment at a time he was away in Bauchi doing his normal job as Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria, said it was another untenable excuse of $496 billion helicopters money the PDP Senators, who are largely enmeshed in image problem as a result of their corruption of recent past, to achieve their aim of removing the anti-corruption fighter from the way for them to enjoy their loots.
One of them challenged the Senators, both of them from opposition PDP and governing APC to go ahead with their impeachment of the President and then “see how Nigerians have since gone in concluding that what we currently have is the constitutionally respected Senate without Senators.”
I mean, “The explanation the President who believes that his party is in the majority in the National Assembly gave in that letter to the Senate is enough, especially when the matter in question is about national security. If these people are not interested in our national security, we Nigerians also are not and will never be interested in them. Let them try the impeachment and see what are made of.
“Do I even blame them? It is what President Buhari caused for himself that he is now facing. We had told you at the beginning that Nigeria is not mature for the kind of government where you allow opposition, especially as desperate as PDP that you just sent out of office, to occupy dominant roles in the new government of your party. But even if Buhari is so simple and lenient, is that why Saraki should exploit his simplicity and leniency to want to collapse Nigeria working with despicable opposition as his “former” PDP? He should be treated like a coup plotter over this matter,” the Respondent who does not want his name in print said.
