Nigeria’s newly elected Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has sworn in 28 lawmakers who were absent from the National Assembly inauguration.
The Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr Salisu Maikasua, administered the oath of office on the 28 Senators-elect on Wednesday.
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, were elected on the floor of the red chamber on Tuesday, contrary to the desire of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Despite the party’s displeasure with the election of Saraki, President Muhammadu Buhari expressed his readiness to work with the elected Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.
He noted that he did not have any preferred candidate for the Senate and the House of Representatives, adding that he is willing to work with whoever the lawmakers elected.
Treachery
The APC had, at a straw poll, chosen Senator Ahmed Lawan as the party’s candidate for the Senate President’s position and Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, as the Speaker of the 8th National Assembly. None of the choice candidates was elected for the position in the Tuesday election, a development that the APC described as treachery.
To further push the party’s displeasure with the process that brought Senator Saraki in, some APC Senators earlier on Wednesday threatened to take all necessary political and legal means to challenge Senate Presidents’s emergence.
