Meeting with Buhari: No official memo from presidency, says NASS

ABUJA – THE office of the Clerk of the National Assembly, CNA, yesterday denied receiving any communication whether formal or informal from President Muhammadu Buhari to delay the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly.

Sources in the CNA office claimed that there was neither official letter, nor SMS message from the presidency directing the Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa, to delay the inauguration.

When Vanguard visited the office at about 2:30pm, Thursday, to confirm whether the CNA was in receipt of any official communication from Mr. President directing him to delay the inauguration because of the alleged meeting he scheduled with the All Progressives Congress, APC, Senators and House of Representatives members-elect, he was not on seat and his office was under lock and key.

The source who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to make any official statement on the matter said, ” there was no official communication through memo from the presidency, no even text messages or phone calls.

“Anybody that has any form of evidence like that, I challenge the person to make it public. Even if there was anything like that, it was not enough to stop the proclamation because it is a constitutional ritual that happens every four years.

“The proclamation letter from the President directed that the inauguration should take place by 10am. Having done the proclamation, you cannot create a distant in time.”

Some of the aggrieved APC Senators under the aegis of the Unity Forum, the group supporting Senator Ahmad Lawan for the Senate President seat had claimed while briefing journalists in Abuja, Wednesday, that the CNA was notified by the President to delay the inauguration of the 8th assembly because of Mr. President’s meeting with the APC members-elect but he ignored the the message and went ahead with the exercise.

To authenticate the APC Unity Forum Senators’ claims, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu was said to have stated that there was a message to the CNA to inform him of the President’s meeting with the National Assembly members and the need to delay the inauguration.

However, a member of the Unity Forum, Senator Kabiru Marafa from Zamfara state wondered why the CNA should proceed with the inauguration of the 8th Senate with only 57 Senators that were present as at the time the election of the Senate President was conducted.

According to him, “why was he in a hurry when he knew that only 57 Senators was in the chamber in such a legislative exercise, what would he have lost if he had delayed it in obedience to the presidential directive.

“About 76 Senators participated in the election of the Deputy Senate President, why did he not wait a little during the election of Senate President if 76 Senators should come within a short time.

“At what point was the Standing Rule of the Senate amended, who amended it? These are some of the things we would like to know.”

When asked that whether there any evidence of Presidential directive to the CNA to delay the inauguration because of the meeting the President was said to have scheduled with the APC Senators and House of Representatives-elect, he said that the presidential spokesman had confirmed that such communication existed.

While also reminded that the proclamation letter from the President for the inauguration directed that the exercise should start 10am even though it started about 10:03 am, he said that he was not aware of the time.

But he insisted that the CNA should have delayed the inauguration having seen that many Senators were not in the chamber as at the time he started the process.