A group of senators is plotting to impeach Senate President Godswill Akpabio when the National Assembly resumes on September 26, according to sources familiar with the matter.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that the plot is being led by Senators Abdulaziz Yari (APC-Zamfara), Aminu Tambuwal (PDP-Sokoto), and Mohammed Onawo Ya’u Sumaila (PDP-Nasarawa).
The plotters are accusing Akpabio of being too subservient to President Bola Tinubu and of not allowing the Senate to function independently. According to The Whistler Newspaper, they are also capitalising on public anger over the government’s handling of the Niger coup and its anti-people policies, such as the removal of fuel subsidy.
Yari, a former governor of Zamfara, was the main challenger of Akpabio for the Senate presidency. He and his group had reportedly done their own zoning of the senate positions, picking Yari from the north-west and planning to pick a deputy Senate president from the south-east.
Senator Suleiman Samaila, a member of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) representing Kano south in June, said, “We did a conventional zoning ourselves, we picked Abdulaziz Yari from the north-west and we are planning to pick deputy senate president from south-east, it shows you that we have done balancing.”
Reports have it that Yari is wooing opposition senators to perfect his plan to take over the Senate.
“They are currently in Saudi Arabia where they are perfecting plans to ensure Akpabio is removed,” the source said. “They claim he’s too subservient to the president and he’s not allowing the Senate to question the presidency and act as a check.”
