Senate President Bukola Saraki has said that there was no time he told Sen. Abdullahi Adamu that Dino Melaye was a clown, saying the former governor of Nasarawa State lied against him.
Sen. Adamu had in an interview with Daily Trust on Sunday said the Senate President once told him that Sen. Dino Melaye was a clown that should not be taken seriously.
The Senate president said Sen. Adamu had been peddling insults and lies against him but he ignored him out of respect for his age.
In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, Saraki said he had deliberately ignored Sen. Adamu, “especially his constant media attacks on me and the Senate since the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) dusted his file on alleged case of corruption and also went ahead to arraign his son in court.”
According to Saraki, “So far, I had refrained from responding in kind out of respect for his age. However, it seems he has misread my maturity and respect for docility. He feels the best way to play his self-survival game and ingratiate himself to the government in order to save his skin is for him to be seen to be fighting Saraki, even if that would require him to tell brazen lies and peddle mischief in his old age.
“I could not have referred to my colleague, Senator Dino Melaye as a clown, knowing that from available records, Senator Melaye has so far outshined and has performed better than Senator Abdullahi in terms of the number of bills sponsored, motion raised and contributions to debate on the floor,” he said.
2019: APC goes after Saraki, dissolves Kwara party executive
The National Working Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has dissolved the Kwara State Executive of the party loyal to Senate President Bukola Saraki.
The dissolution was announced in a resolution signed by the party’s National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and its National Secretary, Mai Mala Buni, on Monday in Abuja after the NWC meeting.
The dissolved party leadership is loyal to Mr Saraki, and the state governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed.
Messrs Saraki and Ahmed have not formally defected from the APC, but are believed to be on their way out.
Mr Saraki last week supervised the defection of 14 senators from the APC. Majority of them, including the other two senators from Kwara, joined the main opposition party, PDP.
Mr Ahmed, who in 2011 took over from Mr Saraki as Kwara governor, also said last week that he could soon leave the APC. Both men are expected to join the PDP.
Earlier this month, PREMIUM TIMES published how the Kwara APC leadership pledged total loyalty to Mr Saraki.
In a statement by its now sacked chairman, Ishola Fulani, the Kwara APC also said it believes the “bond of unity and cohesion in the APC has been weakened, damaged, fractured and severed.”
On Monday, the APC national leadership said a caretaker committee to be led by Bashir Bolarinwa shall be appointed to head the Kwara State executive committee of the party.
It added that caretaker committees would also be constituted in the wards and local government areas of the state.
“The NWC at its meeting of 30th July, 2018, examined the unfolding developments within the party in Kwara State,” the party stated.
“Specifically, the irregularities that characterised the conduct and outcome of the congresses that produced the leadership of the party at all levels.
“The committee also reviewed the actions of some of the leaders of the party that emerged from the above congresses who participated in an open rally calling on the Senate President to decamp to the PDP,” the resolution said.
It added that after a careful and exhaustive deliberation on the issues and other developments in the party’s Kwara chapter, the NWC invoked its constitutional power to dissolve all the state’s organs.
This it added, was in pursuant to the provisions of article 13.4 (xvi) and (xvii) of the party’s Constitution.
According to the resolution, the appointment of Mr Bolarinwa as the chairman of the caretaker committee of the state executive committee shall take immediate effect.