Chidi Samuel || The Senator representing Abia South, Enyinnaya Abaribe, has denied the report that he was queried by fellow Senators over his involvement in IPOB activities, insisting that the said report is an attempt to drive a wedge between the south-eastern
legislators and their northern counterparts.
Abaribe said this on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday while
reacting to a publication that he was queried by senators over his
involvement with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
He said Senate should ask the newspaper to tell it who gave it “this
erroneous and misleading information.
“This morning Mr. President, I was surprised to find ‘IPOB: senators
query Abaribe over Kanu’s bail’. Mr. President, we have always said on
this floor that anything the presiding officer says in the closed-door
session that is the sum total of our discussion.
“And I remember yesterday that three points were made as a result of
our discussion, which was Nigeria’s unity and effort by this Senate to
make sure we help in bringing peace to this country. The headline that
purports to say that this is what happened in our closed-door session
which of course did not happen does not in any way advance the course
of peace in this country.
“My constituents have been worried, they have called me and they have
been asking me and I have told them that it is not true and I will
bring it up on the floor and ask the entire Senate to please help us
to ask the newspaper to produce whoever gave them this information.
“The Senate does not query any of its members, that is the first place
where they failed in casting this headline because each senator knows
what we discussed and what came out at the end of it.
“I wish to be given the opportunity to lay this newspaper and ask this
Senate to please look at the attempt at driving a wedge between the
south-east senators and the northern senators, because it was said
here that the northern senators made a demand for which the south-east
senators reluctantly agreed.
“Some people are bent on making sure that there is no peace but I know
that God will not allow them.”
After Abaribe laid the newspaper before the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu,
deputy senate president appealed to the media to be responsible.
“We expect our press to show a high level of responsibility with the way
they do their work. Publishing rumours will be the highest form of
irresponsibility,” he said.
He then referred the matter to the committee on ethics.
