Baron Ike
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday met with the Senate President Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the Housae of Representatives Yakubu Dogara.
It was a meeting where the President briefed the two National Assembly leaders about his trip to the United States of America, his concern about the non passage of the 2018 budget , and then shared their concerns on certain developments in the NASS that are setting both arms of government on the edge including the invasion of the Senate recently where the mace was criminally removed.
They also discussed the refusal of the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to honour the Senate’s invitation to brief the the senators on certain developments that border on the security of lives and property, including the arrest, detention and prsecution of one of them- Senator Dino Melaye.
Saraki and Dogara were being blamed for the delay of the 2018 budget by certain All Progressive Congress (APC) chieftains and ministers, but they have a different view about why the budget is not yet passed.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Saraki spoke about the strained relationship between the two arms of government, saying the invitation extended to them by the president to brief them on his outing in the U.S. was “a good sign”.
Saraki said: “We at the National Assembly have always been ready to give all our support to the executive and we will continue to work along those lines.
“As I said, the presidential system that we operate, we sometimes have the responsibility to check the excesses of the executive, so there will always be times we will disagree but by and large, we will always work for the interest of Nigerians and always keep on moving on.”
Saraki also said they raised the issue of the refusal of the Inspector General of the Police, Ibrahim Idris, to appear before the Senate.
“We are of great concern that this is the first time this is happening and that, that matter needs to be addressed considering the importance of the powers of the constitution that gives investigative powers, also gives to us and that there is need for police to accept that they too are under the constitution and they must obey that. We raised that concern.”
Corroborating what Sarki said, Dogara said they also raised the issue of Melaye who is being prosecuted by the police for arms possession.
The Speaker said: “Of course anything that happens to one of our members or any member of the National Assembly is of concern to us. And there is no way we can have this kind of meeting without raising that.
“This is a civilian administration, it is democracy and it is imperative and very very important that all institutions of democracy operate within the ambit of the rule of law.
“There is no where, I have said it before that police will behave in a democracy like a clan of tribesmen, like upgraded barbarians sort of. So there is need for us to act with civility.
“We are not saying that anybody should be protected and defended. Once you have committed an offence, our law says you should answer it but you just have to utilise the provision of our constitution, the rule of law and this administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has over emphasised in order to bring people to book.
“But a situation where people are wheeled to court, that doesn’t give a good image of our democracy. I have not seen a democracy where people are wheeled to court, they are not in the proper frame of mind and they are forced to undergo trial.
“Whatever it is, even if Dino is pretending as some have said in some section of the media, he cannot pretend forever. He is there, he will not run away, he is a senator and he can be tried any time he is in proper frame of mind.
“As a lawyer, I can tell you, any judge that assesses an accused person not to be in a proper frame of mind, even if the accused person pleads guilty, he is duty bound by law to record a plea of guilt if he is not satisfied as to the soundness of the mind of the accused person.”
Dogara added that Bhari, being a “listening president” will “definitely take steps and do something about it”.