A group of political parties in Nigeria have raised the alarm over attempts to freeze the bank accounts of Senate President Bukola Saraki.
The parties numbering about 45, also unraveled fresh plot to impeach the Senate President.
They stated this on Thursday in Abuja when they paid a solidarity visit to the Senate leadership.
Speaking on behalf of the political parties, National Chairman, National Unity Party (NUP), Perry Opara, also condemned Tuesday’s siege on the National Assembly by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
According to Opara, Nigeria is gradually turning into a failed state, even as he condemned the use of security agencies to clamp down on the opposition and stifle democracy. He, however, did not list the agency involved.
The National Chairman cited the siege on the residences of the Principal Officers of the National Assembly, Tuesday’s invasion of the Complex and that of the Benue State House of Assembly to buttress his argument.
He said: “We wish to alert Nigerians of a new plot by the same people, whose first shameful attempt to unlawfully overthrow the leadership of the National Assembly failed; an attempt, which brought Nigeria to bad international limelight. We have it on good authority that a fresh plot is being hashed to make another attempt to cripple the parliament in the guise of impeachment, even when they know that there is no constitutional majority to achieve sinister move.
“We wish to state that we, the chairmen and leaders of political parties will not support or stand by to watch any unconstitutional impeachment of the leadership of the National Assembly”.
He called for the inclusion of funds for all optical parties in the 2018 supplementary budget to enable them carry out citizens sensitisation for the forthcoming 2019 General Elections.
This, he said, will enable political parties carry out sensitisation to avert voter apathy witnessed in previous elections.
Responding, Saraki expressed the hope that anti-democratic forces must have learnt their lessons, following the invasion of the National Assembly, assuring that lawmakers will continue to protect the nation’s democracy.
Chairmen of political parties at the visit include: United Democratic Party (UDP), Rebuild Nigeria Party (RNP), People for Democratic Change (PDC), Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), Progressives Peoples Party (PPP), Grassroots Development Party of Nigeria (GDPN), Alliance for Democracy (AD), Young Democratic Party (YDP) among others.
