The Senate has refuted the alleged plan to impeach its president, Godswill Akpabio when the national assembly resumes on September 26, 2023.

Reports on social media stated that there is an ongoing plot to impeach Akpabio and it is being led by Senators Abdulaziz Yari (APC-Zamfara), Aminu Tambuwal (PDP-Sokoto), and Mohammed Onawo Ya’u Sumaila (PDP-Nasarawa).

The plotters are accusing Akpabio of being too subservient to President Bola Tinubu and of not allowing the Senate to function independently. According to The Whistler Newspaper, they are also capitalising on public anger over the government’s handling of the Niger coup and its anti-people policies, such as the removal of fuel subsidy.

Yari, a former governor of Zamfara, was the main challenger of Akpabio for the Senate presidency. He and his group had reportedly done their own zoning of the senate positions, picking Yari from the northwest and planning to pick a deputy Senate president from the southeast.

Yari, a former governor of Zamfara, was the main challenger of Akpabio for the Senate presidency. He and his group had reportedly done their own zoning of the senate positions, picking Yari from the north-west and planning to pick a deputy Senate president from the south-east.

Senator Suleiman Samaila, a member of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) representing Kano south in June, said, “We did a conventional zoning ourselves, we picked Abdulaziz Yari from the north-west and we are planning to pick deputy senate president from south-east, it shows you that we have done balancing.”

It was also said that Yari is wooing opposition senators to perfect his plan to take over the Senate.

“They are currently in Saudi Arabia where they are perfecting plans to ensure Akpabio is removed,” the source said. “They claim he’s too subservient to the president and he’s not allowing the Senate to question the presidency and act as a check.”

However, the Senate has described the rumour making the rounds in some media that some Senators were planning to Impeach the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio as a ruse, just as it pleaded that the Upper Chamber should be allowed fresh air to settle down for its national assignments in order that the Nigerian project can move forward.

In a statement on Saturday by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Yemi Adaramodu, APC, Ekiti South, he said, “our attention has just been drawn to a syndicated satanic verses in a section of the media, of purported and illusory plots of leadership change in the Senate. 

“The Nigerian Senate is one united and fraternal family. This imaginative composition is in the realm of the fake and fallacious story of 100m per legislator. It’s apt to note that the10th Senate, under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio has carried out its Legislative and constitutional duties diligently.

“Within a span of less than 60 Legislative days, the Senate has passed life enhancing bills and motions. It has screened and confirmed Service Chiefs and Ministers, among others, apart from very essential oversight functions.

“We urge the fifth columnists, who operate undoubtedly outside the Senate, desperate to cause disharmony through media stunts and thus clipping the wings of Nigeria’s democracy, to take caution.

”The Senate should be allowed fresh air to settle down for its national assignments so that the Nigerian project can move forward. The media too, should be discerning not to be used as hand tool to these retailers of fake and bad news.”