Society Gists

Elisha Abbo, sacked senator representing Adamawa north, says he was removed from office by the court because he did not support Godswill Akpabio’s senate presidency bid.

Abbo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) addressed a press conference on Monday in Abuja after the court of appeal removed him from office.

The appellate court declared Amos Yohanna of

the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the duly

elected senator for the Adamawa north senatorial district. The now sacked senator said there are four more senators, including Orji Uzor Kalu, senator representing Abia south, who would be

removed from office because they did not

support Akpabio in June.

While Abbo backed Abdulaziz Yari, senator representing Zamfara west, for the office of senate president, Kalu nursed the ambition of becoming the number three citizen but did not eventually run for the office.

“I heard it from a reliable source which I won’t

call the name now that five senators will be

removed from the senate. Those who did not

stand with my brother, my elder brother, and my good colleague, distinguished Senate President Akpabio,” Abbo said. “Those who did not vote for him, five of us are going and I am number one. Orji Uzor Kalu will

go. They have pencilled five of us.

“They told me that I am going because we did

not support the emergence of my brother

Akpabio in emerging as president of the senate.

This is not democracy.

“We have hope in the court, let us build the

country, the international community is

watching us. “You cannot withdraw a ground and the court of appeal restore a ground without the lawyer asking for that ground to be restored and voiding somebody’s election.

“This is a coup on democracy.”

‘AKPABIO HAS NO HAND IN YOUR ORDEAL’

Reacting to the claim, Eseme Eyiboh, spokesperson for Akpabio, said it is uncharitable for Abbo to pour his frustrations on the senate president.

“It is only a diseased and uninformed mind that

will not believe that the outcome of any court

proceeding is a function of the evaluation of

facts and evidence within the province of the

rule of law,” he said.

“Democracy is founded in the rule of law, so for anybody to accuse one of the strong agents of democracy and governance in the mold of Senator Godswill Akpabio, such an individual must be a monument of self-pity and his swansong a discordant escape from reality.”

Advertisement Eyiboh said the senate president does not harbour any ill will against any of the senators and he has since moved on from the election that brought him into office as senate president