Former Senate President Bukola Saraki has slammed the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for trying to shift the blame for the rising insecurity to Eighth Senate.
Recall that Buhari’s Media Adviser, Femi Adesina, had in a statement claimed that the recent security summit organized by the Ninth National Assembly was the maiden edition.
But Saraki in a statement by his media aide, Yusuf Olaniyonu, described Adesina’s statement as false.
He stated that the Eighth Senate organized a security summit to deliberate and proffer solutions to security challenges in Nigeria.
The statement reads: “The Media Office of Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, the immediate-past President of the Senate, notes with dismay the claim in the seventh paragraph of a statement released on July 13, 2021 and signed by Mr. Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity) in which President Muhammadu Buhari was quoted as saying that ‘he tried very hard to get the Eighth (National) Assembly to do same (organise a security summit) for the sake of the country and I didn’t succeed much. But time has proved me right’.
The President was said to have made the claim while receiving the report of the National Security Summit held on May 26, 2021 by the Ninth House of Representatives from Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila.
“On a matter as sensitive and important in the scale of constitutional responsibilities of the legislature, like security, it will be irresponsible of us not to state the true situation concerning the claim by the Presidency.
“We need to inform the general public that the Eighth Senate, without any prompting from the Presidency, organised a well-attended two-day security summit on February 8 and 12, 2018.
“The security summit was organised by the ad hoc committee of the Eighth Senate on the Review of the Security Infrastructure, headed by incumbent Senate President Ahmed Lawan, who was then Senate Leader, and it held at the Nigeria Air Force Conference Centre at Kado in Abuja.
“The summit was declared open by the incumbent Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. Also, the leadership of the Armed Forces and other security agencies were all present at the closed-door deliberations.
“After the report of the summit was adopted by the Senate in the chamber, the 20-point recommendation was officially forwarded to the President for consideration and necessary action…”
“The Media Office of Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki is constrained to make the above clarification for posterity sake because we have noticed the recent trend in which some sources deliberately push out false narrative aimed at shifting blames and passing the buck arising from the security and other challenges confronting the country on the Eighth National Assembly. We urge discerning members of the public to always take their time to properly check the veracity of the claims contained in such narrative.
“We believe that facts are sacred and opinions are free. Therefore, we urge those in charge of re-presenting the views of the President to the public to always check their facts very diligently and ensure that such reports are based on truth and nothing but the truth.”