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The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, had on Thursday tentatively given an anticipatory approval to a non-existing request for purchase of presidential jets for President Bola Tinubu and his vice, Kashim Shettima.
This was as he declared that the Senate would not fold its hands and allow President Tinubu to die like the Vice President of Malawi and Iranian President.
Akpabio gave the indication at an emergency session of the upper chamber which was convened to consider an extension of the implementation period for the capital component of N21.83 trillion 2023 budget, and those of the N2.17 trillion 2023 supplementary budget.
The Senate President who reacted earlier to reports in a section of the media where he was credited to have said that the Red Chamber would approve the purchase of a new presidential jet regardless of the economic hardship faced by Nigerians, added that no such request for a new jet has come before the Senate.
He however said the upper legislative chamber would without delay approve any such request when it comes to avert the fate suffered by the Vice President of Malawi and the President of Iran who died in aeroplane and helicopter crashes respectively.
While reacting to the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central)’s observation on insinuations on social media about the issue of the presidential jets, Akpabio cautioned him against responding to social media because the social media is garbage in, garbage out.
After insisting that the Senate never received any correspondence from the presidency that relates to the presidential jet, he said, “At the same time, we will also take cognisance of the duties of Mr. President if his vehicle is bad, we will repair the vehicle. If his plane is bad, we will approve money for the repair of the plane. So that is not an issue
“I was in Zanzibar attending the inter-parliamentary union meetings when that information went out, that the Senate president has said he will approve a brand-new plane for the president irrespective of whether Nigerians are suffering or not suffering.
“There was never a time such a statement came from me because I’ve never had any correspondence to approve a plan or not approve a plan and I did not want to answer, but they went further to generate it and then they went round as if I was saying that I did not care about the Nigerian people, I did not do this.
“We care about the president, we care about the Nigerian people. We will approve things that will benefit the Nigerian people. We will approve things that will improve the living standards of the people.
“There is nothing before us. I don’t think you should worry about it.
“Somebody came here and said that he was quoting from BBC that it was what I said in Senator Munguno’s house that the statement was false and should be disregarded. That I was now saying that I would not approve. That is what you may call anticipatory blackmail.
“The purveyors of the story know very well that maybe there is a problem with the presidential fleet and that where they will go to will be the Parliament and so they are now trying to do anticipatory blackmail for us if they bring it, we should not look into it.
“So I think we should ignore them and focus on what we are doing here. I’ve read the president’s correspondences to us. There was nothing touching on a plan or no plan, but I can tell you that when you hear stories such as the death of the vice president of Malawi as a result of defective plane, and then you hear stories such as the death of the president of Iran, as a result of defective aircraft, in fact, this time it was a helicopter and all that, We shouldn’t ever dream and allow such to be our portion. It wouldn’t be. The Senate is very responsible. The National Assembly is very responsible.
“We will look into issues that will benefit the governance of the country, irrespective of Anticipatory Blackmail. They know very well that something like that may come in future. And if it’s a necessity, the Senate will look into it.
“But there is nothing like that before us now. So they can go ahead and blackmail the Senate president, it will not affect me.”
The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, had earlier raised issues on the media reports and social media, saying, “In closing, I want to say that the Senate is aware of some insinuation in a section of the media to the extent that the president of the Senate, leading this indicated that we had a request that the purchase of a new plane be approved for Mr. President and that the president of the senate had indicated that regardless of what Nigerians were going through that it would be approved.
“That was one and the senate is also aware that Mr. President tried to clarify this issue that at no point did he say that. Then another section of the media picked on that again to say the president of the Senate, again, leading the 10th Senate, has said whatever Mr. President likes he should go and do it, this Senate will not approve the purchase of a plane.
“As we sat here today, a section of the social media had also been circulating that we had gone into an executive session to discuss the presidential request for a new plane and how we are going to approve it.
“Mr. President, the essence of my saying this is just to make it clear and to alert Nigerians that there is the presence of a fifth columnist and some other propagandists who are doing everything possible to destabilise this country and also destabilise the parliament.
“Mr. President, I say for the record, as the leader of this Senate, that there is no request before this Senate as of yet.
“So there could not have even been a basis for us to debate whether we are going to approve or not. It had never been discussed, either on the floor of the Senate or among individual senators or at the executive floor session, there is no such request.
“If the request comes, it’s not about Mr. President of the Senate alone. It’s for 469 elected representatives of the Nigerian people to discuss and take a position. 360 in the House of Reps, 109 in the Senate. But as we speak, Mr. President, there is no such request and I just want all of us to be clear about this.”
The National Assembly had cut short its Sallah break to hold emergency sessions.
Speculation that trailed the hasty resumption was that was solely to give lawmakers room to extend the implementation period for the capital component of N21.83 trillion 2023 budget and those of the N2.17 trillion 2023 supplementary budget, as well an opportunity to slip the cost of a new presidential jet into the 2024 supplementary budget.
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