There is no plan to declare the seat of Senator Godswill Akpabio, or that of any other defecting lawmaker vacant, Senate President Bukola Saraki has said.
Bukola Saraki
While speaking with PREMIUM Times on Tuesday, Senate President Bukola Saraki, reacted to the rumour making the rounds online that there is a plan to declare the seat of Senator Godswill Akpabio, vacant, saying that there is no such plan for the lawmaker or that of any other defecting lawmaker.
Saraki’s media aide, Yusuph Olaniyonu, who made the disclosure unbehalf of his principal, said that the rumour to declare any seat vacant was false.
He said: “All that is mere talk. People are making claims when we don’t even know when they’ll reconvene.”
Speaking further on the reports of plans to declare Akpabio’s seat vacant, Olaniyonu said, “There’s a lot to be done and we don’t even have time for all that one.”
He linked the reports to the travails of Saraki who risks losing his seat after the APC asked him to resign or be removed.
“These people should focus on other things and leave Saraki alone. They have turned the man into a superstar overnight,” Olaniyonu said.
He called on the public to ignore such reports saying the leadership of the National Assembly is focused on making the country better.
Earlier the PUNCH Newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying arrangements were being made to ensure that Akpabio, and others who defected recently from the PDP to the APC are removed or face a recall process.
In his reaction, Akpabio said he is not perturbed over alleged plot to declare his seat vacant, the Vanguard Newspaper reports.
While speaking to select journalists in Abuja, Akpabio described the insinuations as mere rumour, adding that there is no division in his new party, APC, at the moment; and so seats of those like Saraki who left the party should rather be declared vacant.
“Even as you are looking at me, do I look perturbed? I have not heard the report. Because the reason why I think that is a rumour is that there is, at the moment, no division in the APC. The APC is one family.
“If you hear about R-APC that was not really a political party. That was not a division, it has since been consumed in what they call Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP). So, there is no division. And so, any defection from APC to PDP, we will like to declare those seats vacant,” Vanguard quoted him as saying.