The Coalition for Good Governance and Transparency in Nigeria led thousands of protesters this morning to occupy the National Assembly to demand the immediate resignation of Bukola Saraki, Senate President, over his alleged role in the Offa robbery incident.
The Senate President was recently indicted by suspects arrested in connection with the Offa robbery which claimed 37 lives among whom were nine police officers.
The protesters in their demands called for the resignation of Saraki and his colleagues sponsoring political killings in the country and said it is impossible to have him continue to preside over the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly at a time when there is global outrage over ethnic and politically masterminded killings in Nigeria.
Carrying placards with inscriptions such as “where are the killers in the National Assembly, we have not forgotten Offa robbery incident and Kogi state assasination so soon”, “Saraki must resign and stop mocking the dead, the world is watching, “Insertion of thousands of projects into the budget is tantamount to hijacking of the budget,” “Stealing is corruption and padding is a crime against Nigerians” and “Nigerians are not represented in the sharing of the loots via constituency projects” among others, various leaders of the group took turn to speak at the event.
Comrade Solomon Adodo who led the protest, said the Senate President might be looking at every Nigerian like a fool but the Coalition has come out to take strong exceptions to his Machiavellian politics and send a clear signal to him that Nigerians have rejected his style of leadership and want him out.
Adodo said Saraki’s corruption trial with the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, over his alleged non assets declaration was still ongoing in the anti-graft court and insisted that the path to honour for the Senate President was to step aside to clear his name.
He tasked members of the 8th Senate to do the needful by immediately impeaching Saraki as the Senate President should he fail to resign, saying such development would bring sanity and restore the lost glory to the upper chamber of the National Assembly in particular and Nigeria in general.
The group which regretted that Nigeria has become a laughing stock in the international community because of the many corruption cases involving its number three man in government and also accused the Senate President of seeking revenge against President Muhammadu Buhari and some appointees in the crime and anti-corruption agencies
