The lingering face-off between the Presidency and the Senate over the alleged forgery of Senate rules when the 8th National Assembly was proclaimed has elicited grave concern among discerning Nigerians.
It was alleged that the forged rules paved the way for the election of Sen. Bukola Saraki and Sen. Ike Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively.
The controversies that greeted the emergence of the two Senate leaders have yet to abate.
It will be recalled that Mr. Saraki and Senator Ahmed Lawan, both of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), contested for the Senate President post but the contest somewhat led to the polarisation of the party.
Members of the APC particularly resented the election of Mr. Ekweremadu of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as deputy senate president and this further polarised the party.
The development also provoked the onset of allegations regarding the forgery of the Senate Rules, in a plot to facilitate the election of the two principal officers of the upper legislative arm.
Senators, opposed to the leadership of Mr. Saraki, had on July 29, 2015 filed a suit at Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking the nullification of the June 9 proclamation of the 8th Senate carried out by the management of the National Assembly.
Sen. Kabiru Marafa (APC-Zamfara West), in one of the sittings of the 8th Senate, raised a point of order that the new Standing Order 2015 (as amended), which was produced and circulated, was never approved by the 7th Senate.
He concluded that new Standing Order was a fraudulent document, adding that all the activities conducted by the Senate from June 9, 2015 were, therefore, null and void.
In a swift reaction, Sen. Gilbert Nnaji (PDP-Enugu East) approached a court to stop the police from investigating the alleged forgery of the 2015 Senate Standing Order.
Responding to the suit, the former Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, via a counter-affidavit, said no court of law in the country had the power to stop the police from carrying out its statutory function of investigating crimes.
According to him, nobody in the country, including the 74 political office holders covered by the provisions of Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), is exempted from investigation.
Mr. Arase argued that the principal officers of the Senate had no constitutional immunity from investigation.
According to the rules of the Senate, there are procedures for amending the Senate Standing Orders. Section 110 of the Senate Standing Order 2011 specifically lists the procedures that should be followed in making such amendments.
Benedict Efeturi, the Deputy Clerk to the National Assembly, confirmed to police investigators that the Senate Standing Order that was used for the 2015 election of Messrs. Saraki and Ekweremadu was different from the 2011 version which ought to have been used at that point in time.
Mr. Efeturi made the disclosure to the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department of the Nigeria Police, which investigated claims that the rules were forged to facilitate the election of Messrs. Saraki and Ekweremadu.
However, after a year since the news of the alleged forgery broke, the Senate President, his deputy, Salisu Maikasuwa, the former Clerk of the National Assembly and his deputy, Mr Efeturi were arraigned at FCT High Court, Abuja on June 27.
Mr. Saraki, who has consistently voiced his innocence as to the formulation of the contentious Senate Rules, said that the case of forgery brought against him at the FCT High Court, Abuja, was another phase in the orchestrated persecution he had been facing since his emergence as senate president.
The senate president alleged that some cabals, who had taken over the control of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, were now using it to perpetrate their nefarious activities.
He said that the on-going trial of the Senate leadership was an attack on the legislative arm of government.
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