Senators scheming to replace Senate President

Reports say Senators are holding meetings to get a suitable replacement for the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, if he is indicted by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

Read: Another senator backs out of 'Vote of confidence' list

According to Vanguard Newspapers, members of the Senate Unity Forum (SUF) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership met to consider possible replacements for the Senate President.

Vanguard also reports that Senator George Akume, from Benue (North-Central), Senator Barnabas Gemade (Benue), and Senator Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa State), are the three top considerations.

Read: Senate to read list of ministerial nominees on Tuesday

A source who spoke to Vanguard said “subterranean and nocturnal moves by the PDP Senators to upstage us by backing one of them to take over the office of the Senate President, if Saraki goes. We are not unaware of a series of meetings by PDP elements in the Senate since Saraki’s trial began, some of the meetings in the dead of the night.”

Read: Speaker seeks political solution to Saraki’s ordeal

Adding that “Those of us in the APC, as the majority party in the Senate cannot sit idly by and allow a minority party in the Senate to take over a position that rightly belongs to us as a party. I can assure you that it is going to be a titanic battle on the floor of the Senate if Saraki goes. What happened on June 9 cannot be allowed to repeat itself no matter how strong the PDP caucus feels it is.”

“We have already launched out to position Akume, Gemade and Adamu as our possible choices just in case the need arises to replace Saraki at the instance of CCT ruling,” the source said