Akpabio blasts NASS leadership

Sen. Godswill Akpabio (APC-Akwa Ibom) has described Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara as weak and asked them to resign before they were forced to leave as they are no longer capable of functioning.

Akpabio, a former ally of Saraki and Dogara, said his former political friends were now weak because they were unable to deliver their addresses during President Muhammadu Buhari’s budget presentation.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Saraki and Dogara were expected to make opening and closing remarks respectively before and after the presentation.

However, the rowdy session caused by PDP lawmakers at the presentation made it impossible for the two presiding officers to deliver their addresses.

Reacting to the development, Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom state, said Saraki and Dogara could not speak because they were no longer qualified to do so.

The former senate minority leader said: “They really couldn’t talk because they shouldn’t be sitting on those seats since they now belong to a minority party.

“When I was in the minority party, I was the minority leader; I wasn’t the Senate President.

“So I will expect that what has happened today should be a wake-up call on the Speaker and the Senate President to resign peacefully,” he said.

On the rowdy session, he said such action was a characteristic of a parliament all over the world.

“But you could also notice that the majority party, the APC, showed its strength. There was a lot of quietness; there was a lot of silence whenever the President was making key points.

“The rest were just normal nuances of politics,” he said