Robert Clarke: I Can’t See Saraki Last For 9 Months

Prominent Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Robert Clarke, Tuesday evening said that the newly elected president of the 8th Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, will not last for 9 months. Mr. Clarke faulted the process that saw a new leadership for the Senate.

Speaking on Channels television news hour interview, Clarke said today is the saddest day he’s ever seen in the political history of Nigeria.

“I must confess that today is the saddest day I’ve ever seen in the political history of Nigeria. What happened today is the highest form of treachery. I can assure you that what transpired in the senate today does not confirm with the rules of the senate in the election of its principal officers.”

“With what happened today one wonders whether PDP and APC are not one and the same. What Saraki has done today is sell out his party. I can’t see Saraki last for 9 months.”

“This happened with the PDP in 1999. When the Senate was about to start the same scenario played itself. Okadigbo was to have been named as the president of the Senate and Nwobodo asked that Evan Enwerem should come in. Enwerem did not last for 9 months. I can’t see Saraki last because the way he has emerged gives room for us to suspect his integrity.”

Clarke argued that about 50 per cent of the members could not be absent and the Senate claims to have been inaugurated. The lawyer further stressed that it means the Senate only has 57 members. He asserted that what the senators did amounted to disenfranchising 51 other members at a time they were not sworn in.

He noted that the rule of the Senate that the senators quoted to support their claim on quorum formation was equally wrong. He went further to spur the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to fight the matter in court.