Posted by By BASHIR UMAR, Abuja on
The 2007 Movement, a group of national lawmakers led by Senator Uche Chukwumerije on Tuesday raised the alarm that the Presidency has perfected plans to recruit 22,000 youths to lay siege to the Apo legislative quarters in Abuja.
The 2007 Movement, a group of national lawmakers led by Senator Uche Chukwumerije on Tuesday raised the alarm that the Presidency has perfected plans to recruit 22,000 youths to lay siege to the Apo legislative quarters in Abuja.
The purpose of the invasion alleged the group, is to protest the Senate's handling of the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF) report and to intimidate the senators to discontinue the work of the Review Panel set up to study the controversial report submitted by the Senate Committee on the PTDF.
The presidency is also planning to blacemail the Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani to checkmate the growing confidence of Nigerians in the Senate.
Chairman of the National Assembly Radical Group, Senator Chukwumerije in a press statement entitled 'Nation On The Brink of Disaster" distributed to newsmen, said the mob, according to the plans of the organizers, will barricade the legislative quarters early in the morning some time next week.
He stated that some youth leaders on a secret recruitment financed from certain quarters are being prepared to hire demonstrators to cow the senators into abandoning the work of the review committee and pre-empt any resolutions that would allot similar punishments to similar offences.
Specifically, Senator Chukwumerije disclosed that some 22,000 youths, with Igbos as the spearheads are to be recruited, and the mob will lay siege on the official home of the senators next week when their projected budget would have been fully released to them.
Another objective of the riot, he said, was 'to blackmail the Senate President, Ken Nnamani as a selfish leader, scheming to emerge as the next president, and to project him as anti-Igbo because the despicable low-grade tale-tellers, will offer the argument that his imaginary short-term Igbo rule, will be debited to Ndigbo's slot in power rotation as was done in General Ironsi's case.
The 2007 Movement also alleged that another aim 'is to blackmail the National Assembly with the threat that any attempt to impeach Mr. President will instantly provoke a declaration of a state of national emergency."
He said that the ringleaders of the proposed demonstration 'are the same people who stage-managed recent demonstrations in the residence of the Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and in the national headquarters of INEC in favour of Professor Iwu.
He pointed out that the recent setting up of a committee comprising the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the president of the Court of Appeal, the chairman of INEC, as well as the Attorney-General, charged with appraising the state of our preparedness for the forth-coming elections, was all part of the attempt to compromise the Judiciary.
'The Committee is a hybrid composition which seeks to drag constitutional democracy's umpire, the Judiciary into the political pitch and thereby compromise its independence," he said, querying: 'If the judiciary is made to involve itself in executive functions, who will adjudicate disputes which are bound to rise in the forth-coming electoral battle?"
He also listed the use of the EFCC to hunt perceived opponents with frivolous indictment as one of the ways the Obasanjo administration intends to scuttle the transition so as to perpetuate himself in power.
Warning the people against believing claims of the President Obasanjo as desirous of wanting to hand over in may this year Sen. Chukwumerije noted that 'we must alert the nation and all legislators that the indications that the Obasanjo administration is still determined to elongate its tenure by all means remain very strong.
The effusive pronouncement of Mr. President in PDP rallies of his willingness to allow free and fair elections and hand over power to a successor on May 29 are only meant to humour the international community and deceive the gullible in the audience. The sad lesson from the third term saga and other official sleight-of-hand moves is that we must learn to read not the lips of Mr. President but his toes and the direction to which the toes are pointing."
Meanwhile, the Senate yesterday adopted two of the proposed motions raised by Senator Iyabo Anishulowo against the recent political crisis in Ogun State, which she said had led to detaining Senator Ibikunle Amusun for three days and herself for an hour in police custody.
According to her, last weekend was ridden with so much crisis in Ogun state between members of the PDP and those of her party the ANPP during which the police clearly harassed members of the ANPP while sparing the PDP members who she said were the first to start the trouble which led to destruction of property and injuring numerous members of the two parties.
Adopting two of the five proposals she made against the administration of law in the state, the Senate set up a three-member committee to investigate the immediate and remote causes of the rift and report in one week. The committee, led by Senator Isa Maina has Senators Rufus Spiff and Jalo Zarami as members.