I know nothing about alleged forgery

ABUJA— SENATE President, Bukola Saraki, said
yesterday that he knew nothing about the alleged
forgery of the 2015 Standing Rules, saying he
was simply a senator-elect, prior to the

inauguration of the 8th Senate.
He also vowed to explore all legal options
necessary to ward off what he described as a
fresh case of persecution and distraction.
Saraki said the current attempt to shut down the
Senate by dragging its presiding officers before a
court for a phantom allegation of forgery would
not add to attempts to solve the problems
confronting the nation by the All Progressives
Congress, APC.
Needless distractions
He added that these needless distractions would
do nobody any good as it would not help in
delivering on the promise of bringing positive
change to the lives of Nigerians who voted for
the APC in the last elections.
According to him, the ongoing efforts to drag him
into a case of forgery before the Federal Capital
Territory, FCT, High Court is another phase in the
orchestrated persecution he has been facing
since he emerged as Senate President a year
ago.
Saraki in a statement by his Special Adviser,
Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, noted
that he was not a part of the leadership of the
7th Senate that made the rules in question.
He said prior to his unanimous election as
Senate President on June 9, 2015, he was merely
a senator-elect like all his colleagues, and was,
therefore, not in a position to influence the rules
used in the conduct of the election.
The statement read: “The Police in their
investigation were conscious that the incumbent
Senate President was not in office prior to June
9, 2015 and that was why in their letters inviting
some individuals for their investigation, they only
mentioned officers of the 7th Senate. The last of
the letters was written to the Clerk of the
National Assembly on June 7, 2016 and he was
not among those invited.
“Those who decided to smuggle the name of the
Senate President into the charge sheet after the
fact knew perfectly well that only the leadership
of the 7th Senate were invited for investigation.
‘’But they needed to implicate him in keeping
with their declared vow to ensure that even if
their current efforts to nail him through the Code
of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, fails, they would find
other ways to carry out their vendetta.
“This so-called forgery case is another wanton
abuse of the judicial process and making a
mockery of the institution of justice. As the
Senate earlier stated, the sponsors of this plot
are not only gunning for Dr. Saraki, what they
have just launched with this latest antics is a
grand onslaught on the foremost institution of
our democracy.
Dictatorship and democracy
‘’The only institutional difference between
dictatorship and democracy is the presence of
the legislature. Therefore, by seeking to cripple
the National Assembly, they have declared a war
on our hard-won democracy and aimed for the
very jugular of our freedom.
“Let us restate the fact that the Senators who
initiated the Police investigation in the first place
had raised the same matter on the floor and
were overwhelmingly overruled.
‘’They also filed a civil suit and were told by the
court that neither the judiciary nor the executive
can interfere in the internal affairs of the
legislative arm.
“The Senate President recognises the sundry
problems bedeviling our nation today - food
insecurity, devaluation of the Naira, inflation,
unemployment, failing national infrastructure,
insurgency in the North-eastern part of the
country, restiveness in the oil producing areas,
and general insecurity, among others - and
believes that finding solutions to them should be
the priority, at this period, for every individual in
government, not the pursuit of narrow political
objectives."
Malami to appear before Senate
Meanwhile, in line with the summon by the
Senate, the Attorney General of the Federation
and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, would
today, appear before the Senator David Umaru-
led Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and
Legal Matters to explain his reason for initiating
legal action against the Senate President, Bukola
Saraki, and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, over
alleged forgery of Senate Standing Rules.
It would be recalled that the Senate had at its
plenary on Tuesday, unanimously resolved that
its 2015 Standing Rules were not forged.