EXCLUSIVE: NASS Members-Elect Offering Huge Money, Exotic Cars As Bribes To Become Speaker
NASS Members-Elect Offering Huge Money, Exotic Cars As Bribes To Become Speaker
The Northwest Vice Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has lamented that he got “disturbing reports” from the House of Representatives members-elect that aspirants for the position of Speaker are already huge amounts of money and exotic cars to bribe their colleagues.
The vice chairman added that any Senator of Muslim faith who is contesting to become the president of the yet-to-be-inaugurated 10th Senate does not respect the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and that of the ruling party.
Lukeman, who is also a member of the APC National Working Committee said that any attempt to elect a Muslim as Senate President with Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, as Muslim President-elect and the Vice President-elect, would amount to promotion of Muslim-dominated federal government.
According to him, such a development would be injurious to national unity.
TheCable quoted Lukeman as saying on Monday that “Any Muslim aspiring for the position of Senate President has no respect for both the constitutions of the federal republic of Nigeria and the APC.
“This is because Chapter II, Section 14(3) of the Nigerian constitution clearly outlined that ‘the composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies.
“With two Muslims already elected to be sworn in as president and vice-president of the federal republic on May 29, any attempt to consider another Muslim as senate president will promote the dominance of Muslims in the federal government and will be injurious to national unity and peaceful co-existence of Nigeria as a sovereign entity, which must not be allowed.”
He noted that it is embarrassing that some of those aspiring to be leaders in the legislature are going about it “unethically”.
Lukeman added that “There are also the disturbing reports from House of Representatives members-elect that one aspirant for the position of Speaker from north-east apart from bribing members-elect with huge amounts of money is also offering jeeps to members-elect if they will commit to electing him as the speaker.
“How can APC elected representatives descend so low as to be using unethical methods of cash-and-carry to mobilise support for their aspirations?
“The two senators-elect who are being alleged to be involved in such unethical methods are both Muslims from the north-west.”
