Abdullahi Adamu (APC, Nasarawa West), has accused the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, of using his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, to do his “dirty work”.
He made this accusation during an interview with Daily Trust, where he also accused Mr. Saraki of leading the Senate ”by proxy”.
Mr. Adamu was one of the Senators who opposed the amendment of the election sequence by his colleagues and has since defended his actions, stating that he acted ultimately in the interest of democracy and the country.
He was eventually removed as the leader of the Northern Senators Forum, an action many linked to his daring to oppose the senate leadership.
The former governor of Nasarawa state said there have been attacks on him as a ranking senator.
He also denied allegations that he was plotting to destabilise the Senate and cause a change of its leadership.
“I have no problem with the senate president; I’m not looking for his seat but somehow he is a kind of guy who is operating by proxy, principle of proxy. You know he has errand boys who take it upon themselves to do the hatchet man’s job. If there is anything that is going to happen and he feels it will be a bit hard to swallow, he will make sure he is not on the stage and he will have Ike Ekweremadu to do the dirty work for him.
“Yes, I may not have supported Saraki’s emergence as the senate president because I wasn’t part of the circumstances that produced him; but in order to make for peace, I was talked to and we decided to let the sleeping dogs lie.
“The leadership of the government, the presidency and the party didn’t fight when this thing happened under their watch, so I felt there was no point to fight to any ridiculous level. In this room that we are having this interview, people from outside the senate came wanting me to vie (for the Senate presidency) but I said no. In the end, people who wanted to make peace came and said we should give it a chance and we made it very possible to have peace and I have never changed my mind on that.”
Reacting to reports that monkeys ‘absconded’ with N70 million belonging to Northern Senators’ Forum that was kept in his farm, Mr. Adamu said people making the accusation were being used to give him a bad name.
“In order to give a dog a bad name, they now went to say that they had N70m that I mismanaged or whatever. The NSF, to the best of my knowledge, has never had N70m, at least not during my tenure that they purported it was mismanaged. We inherited something in the region of N62m/N63m that was declared by the outgone secretary of the forum who happens to be the present Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan. I didn’t touch one kobo until when we were going to Katsina for the NSF retreat. When we were going, we got the same guys to sign for the transport fares.
“Every senator that attended was paid N250, 000 as allowance for his two days and everyone also got N150, 000 for return ticket. They got these and they signed. The remaining money was returned to Abuja and was paid back into the account.
“You know, when you talk of money, everybody’s attention will be attracted. They did this to get attention, but this is just garbage, and for the allegation, it is up to them to prove.”