Budget: Akpabio lambasts Saraki, Dogara

Senator Godswill Akpabio has described the inability of Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara to deliver their speeches during President Muhammadu Buhari’s budget presentation as a sign of weakness. He urged them to resign peacefully.

Akpabio, in an interview with reporters shortly after Buhari presented the 2019 Appropriation Bill at the National Assembly in Abuja, said: “They really couldn’t talk because they shouldn’t be sitting on those seats since they now belong to a minority party.

“When I was in the minority party, I was the minority leader; I wasn’t the Senate President.

“So I will expect that what has happened today should be a wake up call on the Speaker and the Senate President to resign peacefully,” he said.

On the rowdy session, he said such action was a characteristic of a parliament all over the world.

“But you could also notice that the majority party, the APC, showed its strength. There was a lot of quietness; there was a lot of silence whenever the President was making key points.

“The rest were just normal nuances of politics,” he said.