The president of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan on Wednesday during plenary, blocked senators of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from moving to commence impeachment proceedings against president Muhammadu Buhari over lingering insecurity in the country.
As a result of the blockade, the Senate Minority Leader, Philip Aduda led other PDP senators to walk out of the green chambers of the National Assembly.
Briefing journalists after the caucus stormed out of plenary, Aduda said the Senate had agreed in a closed door session to give the president an ultimatum of six weeks to address insecurity in the country, but the Senate President failed to mention it during plenary.
He added that when, under point of order, he drew the attention of the Senate president to the omission, Lawan shouted him down.
“We went into a close session to discuss issues as they relate to security in this country, especially the happenings in Abuja and the entire country and we agreed that the primary responsibility of government is the protection of lives and property of the citizens.
‘’We the Minority Caucus in the Senate also took into cognizance the fact that the Senate at various times convened various security meetings where serious security issues were discussed and made recommendations to government on measures aimed at curbing this issue of insecurity. We discovered that Abuja where we live is no longer safe. All of you will agree with us.
“At the close session we agreed that we will give the president ultimatum, failing which we will move immediately to issue impeachment notice. This we agreed at our executive (close session).
“So, when we came out of the close session, we expected the Senate President to brief the public on what has happened, but this did not happen.
“We have come here in protest to brief you and to let you know that we are with Nigeria in this struggle and that were are worried that nowhere is safe in Nigeria and as such we walked out of the plenary because the security situation in Nigeria is deteriorating and urgent steps must be taken immediately to ensure this is curbed,” Aduda told journalists.
On the lawmakers hope to formalise the impeachment proceeding, Aduda said the president has six weeks ultimatum “precisely within which this insecurity should be resolved and for our resolutions to be implemented. We have passed many resolutions on security and given all the support needed in terms of appropriation to no avail.”
