Embattled Senator Abdullahi Adamu (APC Nasarawa West) has vowed to remain loyal to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and also continue to fight its enemies in the upper legislative chamber.
There are alleged plans to suspend Adamu from the Senate because he is believed to be leading a group of others working to impeach Senate President Bukola Saraki.
Reacting to the allegation in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, Senator Adamu said that the rumoured suspension allegedly being planned against him by the Senate leadership, if eventually carried out, would amount to abuse of power.
The former Nasarawa State governor recently led a group of senators to fault the decision of the senate on the Electoral Amendment Bill 2018, which put Presidential election last among others on the 2019 general elections, alleging that it was targeted at President Muhammadu Buhari.
But the Senate didn’t take it lightly, referring the matter to its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions chaired by Senator Sam Anyanwu (PDP Imo East).
Senator Adamu said: “I have heard what I consider to be rumours to the effect that the Senate plans to suspend me. I hope it is a mere rumour bandied about in the current climate of mutual recrimination.
“However, I would not be surprised if such an extreme form of punishment is being contemplated by the Senate leadership.
“I would caution against the decision, if indeed such a decision is on the cards, to suspend me because it would serve no purpose other than to demonstrate the exercise of power in a manner that results in its abuse.
“If the intention is to gag me or intimidate me, I am afraid it would not be worth the effort. Neither adversary nor adversity can force me to abandon my resolve as a matter of personal honour and principle to always speak the truth and defend the truth.
“It is not in my nature to see what I consider to be wrong and either keep quiet or pretend that it is not my concern. Whatever affects the interests of this administration is my concern because as a senator and as a member of the ruling party, I am but a servant of the APC brought into power on the consent of the good people of this country who expect the government to serve, protect and defend their interests”, he said .
Senator Adamu chronicled his alleged offence against some forces in the Senate. According to him, it started when he stood up on the floor few weeks back to caution against running down the government led by President Muhammadu Buhari down, and kicked against new sequence of elections inserted into the electoral act amendment bill, along with some other Senators.
According to him, shutting out such dissenting voice would inflict irreparable damage to the Parliament and by extension, the nation’s democracy.
“The day we snuff out the right of dissent in and outside the Senate legislative chambers would mark the beginning of our loss of individual and collective rights as Nigerian citizens. May such a day never come,” he stressed.
He explained further that all allegations leveled against him so far as regards destabilization plot against the Senate and its leadership is barefaced lies, saying “to achieve what and for what purpose?
He, however, said as a Senator of the federal republic of Nigeria, his loyalty to the Senate as an Institution would remain intact regardless of whatever his antagonists in the Senate do at the end of the day.
The statement reads in part: “The public is aware that I have been the subject of vilifications by both the leadership and my distinguished colleagues in the 8th senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the past three weeks or so.
“Various attempts have been made, and are still being made, to impugn my integrity and question my support for the leadership of the Senate and my loyalty to the Senate.
“I have thus far refrained from a press war in defense of myself because I am fully aware that press warfare resolves nothing. In all wars, including a press war, the truth suffers; the public becomes less informed and more confused about the facts and the issues at stake.
“I have taken some necessary steps within the confines of the Senate to defend myself and re-assure my distinguished colleagues that I remain unshaken in my commitment and faithful to my oath as a legislator on whom the constitution imposes the burden of making laws for the good governance of our dear country.
“I am now forced to respond to some of the barefaced lies and the nasty allegations against me because the public has the right to know the facts. My objective is to properly educate the public on my ‘crime’ or ‘crimes.’ It is important for the public to know that I have committed no crime against the Senate and/or its leadership.
“I have done nothing to bring the revered upper legislative house to ridicule intentionally or inadvertently”.
“I am in the Senate primarily to represent the interest of my people in the South-Western senatorial district of Nasarawa State.
“My voice is the voice of my people; my stand on critical national issues that agitate us is the stand of my people.
“To suspend me on the basis of baseless allegations that do not amount to the infraction of senate rules is to deny them my voice and my representation.”