An anti-Saraki, pro-Lawan senator, Kabiru Marafa, has accused the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, of being behind allegation of budget padding in the National Assembly. Marafa has also alleged that the planned delay in the passage of the 2016 budget was a deliberate ploy by Saraki to trade over his pending trial at the anti-graft court.
Speaking to journalists yesterday, in Abuja, Marafa said: “Nobody, I repeat, nobody in that Senate, can suspend me over those remarks I made in the said interview. Rather, it is the Senate President, Bukola Saraki , that should be suspended by the Senate for turning things upside down within the last eight months, from forgery of Standing Orders to illegally increasing the number of standing committees in the Senate from 57 to 65 with attendant violation of ranking rules in their compositions and above all, refusing to resign as Senate President, in the face of trial on corruption charges at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, and invariably battering the image of the Senate.
“He should remember that when the issue first came up in August or September last year, we didn’t tell him to resign and thus, cannot by whatever means now gag us and gag our mouths. The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria gives us the right to say our opinion, to air our views and nobody can deny us that one. Honestly speaking, if am to comment on the controversy that has been trailing the 2016 budget in the Senate, I will say it is all the work of the 5th columnists there. In a nutshell, all the noise about the budget are all about this issue of corruption trial or CCT trial. That is all, no more no less.”
