The leadership of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the House of Representatives has commenced mobilization of members across other opposition parties with the view to strengthen the movement to stall plans to impeach Senate President Bukola Saraki.
Chukwuma Onyema, acting Minority Leader who briefed Legislative Correspondents, accused the leadership of All Progressive Congress (APC) under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari of planning to truncate democracy.
Onyema who condemned alleged plot to reconvene plenary on the floor of the Senate, vowed that the PDP caucus will keep vigil at the National Assembly to avert moves to impeach Saraki and truncate democracy.
He said: “the committee work is still going on and we were busy doing our committee’s work when information got us that the senate chamber is being forcefully invaded by a couple of senators led by Senator Ali Ndume, Senator Adamu Abdullahi and Senator Omo-Agege.
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“And the aim of their invasion of the senate while senators are busy on recess they wanted to invade the senate chamber come and sit illegally and impeach the Senate President illegally, when everybody is out on recess.
“We also heard on good authority that they are trying to come back tomorrow morning aided by security forces, our own security forces, when their job is to protect lives and properties of Nigerians. They are the ones leading these decedent senators.
“I’m looking for the right word to use, because they want to truncate democracy. We might think they want to take over the senate that is not what they are trying to do, they want to truncate democracy.
“This democracy of ours, they want to truncate but we the PDP caucus, minority caucus we have decided that we are going to stay here, we will keep vigil and wait and see what will happen tonight and tomorrow night.
“We are calling on all Nigerians to stay awake with us because this is not a rape on the National Assembly, it’s a rape on democracy which concerns you and I, all of us. And if we allow this to happen, then we might as well go back to when we have the military junta. And we should all forget about democracy.
“That is why we said we will tell the people, we have to tell all Nigerians of what is happening. We are right here in the National Assembly till 6 o’clock, we are suppose to be on recess because we have finished our committee work, we are suppose to be at home but we said we are not going, we are going to sleep here.
“We are having also some information that some policemen have arrived, so we want to find out what they are doing here. If we all go to the Senate chamber and we see that it is locked up and barricaded with chains, because nobody suppose to be sitting. So if we are going to allow, I don’t know if some senators will want to attempt what happened in Benue state, which on its own is an illegality, they now want to bring it to the National Assembly.
“So that will show you what our leadership, the leadership of the country, the Executive, what they want to turn this country into.
“As a parting shot, we are also aware that Mr. President is going on holiday for 10 days, we wish him well, we wish him quick recovery and we wish him to come back on time so that if this is happening behind his back he will tell his people to stop it.
“We are no longer in the military rule, we are now in democratic rule. We all sworn oath to uphold the Constitution and to uphold the democracy, including himself.
“He should be here and watch it whole. By right he should not even go when this kind of thing happens. But because of his situation, we are swishing him well that he should go and come back on time,” Onyema said.
