There was a mild drama during plenary in the upper chamber of the National Assembly on Thursday as senators of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) staged a walkout.
The PDP senators decided to walk out after a move to commence impeachment proceedings against President Muhammadu Buhari was blocked by Senate President Ahmad Lawan.
Senator Philip Aduda, Senate Minority Leader told journalists after the caucus stormed out of plenary on Wednesday, that President Muhammadu Buhari has been issued 6 weeks ultimatum, to address the insecurity in the country.
He said the Senate in a closed door session agreed to give the president the ultimatum, but surprisingly the Senate President Ahmad Lawan did not even mention it during plenary.
However, when Aduda came under point of order to draw attention to that obvious omission, Lawan shut him down.
Briefing journalists, Aduda said “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.’’
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“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”.
On the lawmakers hope to formalise the impeachment proceeding, Aduda said the president has 6 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”.
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