Kabiru Marafa, Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), has expressed optimism that the changes in the leadership of the senate committees would ensure genuine reconciliation in the Senate.
Marafa, a member of the Unity Forum in the Senate, made the statement on Friday in Abuja while fielding questions from State House correspondents, after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said that the re-composition of the Senate standing committees was one of the conditions put forward by members of the Unity Forum for peace to return to the senate.
Marafa added that the changes in the leadership of the senate committees was part of the ongoing efforts by the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to address fragmentation among its members in the senate.
“I think the reshuffling of committees is nothing new in any parliament. Maybe what makes that of yesterday a little new is the circumstances that led to the emergence of the present leadership and what followed.
“In the last few days, the party (APC) has been on top of the situation, trying to reconcile its children.
“The APC caucus in the senate has been badly fragmented and the party wants to see an end to that.
“What (you saw) happened yesterday was as a result of the efforts the party has been putting in the last few days,’’ he said.
Marafa, who has been an outspoken critic of the Senate President Bukola Saraki, said he was not at loggerhead with the Senate’s leadership, saying that Saraki was one of his close associates and senior in the chamber.
The senator described as “a huge and heavy joke’’ the recent insinuation that the Senate was contemplating the possibility of impeaching President Muhammadu Buhari.
“You know in the legislature we crack a lot of jokes, some light; some medium and some very heavy jokes and I think I will only describe that as a very heavy joke.
“But, nobody is contemplating that. It is not a possibility, it has never been done and God willing it will not happen in this Assembly,’’ he said.
Marafa, who represent Zamfara Central Senatorial zone, said the state chapter of the APC in Zamfara had waded into the crisis between Gov. Abdulaziz Yari and members of the State House of Assembly.
He called on Niger Delta militants to shun their destructive activities and embrace dialogue with government for peace to reign in the region.
(NAN)
