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Dirty slap saga
Anisulowo�s last laugh
� Isa Mohammed and his wives begged her but the Senate
still hammered him
COSMAS EKPUNOBI
SOME call it
N1.2 million senatorial slap, others especially critics of the senate call it
another show of shame which may have created further credibility problem for the
upper chamber of the National Assembly.
Analyst however likened last Thursday�s
clash to two respected masquerades dancing naked in a market square.
Sadly, some Senators had had admitted that
the slap on the colleague over money had indeed brought the integrity of the
upper House to question.
But whatever inglorious name it may be
called, the hard fact remain that Senator Isa Mohammed had paid a price for his
action.
Precisely on Tuesday the senate slammed a
two week suspension on the Niger State born senator for slapping his boss
Senator Iyabo Anisulowo. (PDP Ogun).
For the records, Senator Anisulowo is the
chairman of the senate committee on state and local government affairs and she
has Alhaji Mohammed as her deputy.
Senator Mohammed was suspended despite his
five day long move to calm frayed nerves. His action was roundly condemned and
he was axed.
Governor Kure of Niger State led a team of
top government officials to the Apo residence of Mrs. Anisulowo to beg the
former minister of education for forgiveness.
The wives of the suspended senator were
said to have visited the former minister in Apo where the two women profusely
asked Senator Anisulowo to forgive their husband for his condemnable act.
Some cronies to the embattled senator also
made similar moves at the weekend to reconcile the two senators.
But like the "Biblical Herold�s daughter
the head of the two term senator was served to his boss on a plate on Tuesday
when the senate passed a resolution baring senator Isa Mohammed from the chamber
for two weeks.
And like the said Herolds daughter Mrs.
Anisulowo who said earlier she had forgiven her deputy, however also declared
that she was pleased with the decision of the senate.
She told Saturday Champion
exclusively that her greatest regret was that she was not able to slap back
Senator Mohammed that day.
"I felt terribly bad especially when I
couldn�t slap him back, she said.
"I couldn�t give him back because it was
too much in the public and if it where to be in the chamber I would have given
him back the slap and the senate would have settled it there in the chamber
immediately".
Interestingly, the deputy senate president
Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu who presided over the senate the day judgement was
delivered against Mohammed was alleged to be having a running battle with the
suspended senator. Mantu has been presiding over the senate in the past two
weeks. A source alleged that Senator Isa Mohammed has never hidden his ambition
to unseat Senator Mantu, having contested the same position thrice in the past,
without winning.
According to him, the said ambition is
largely responsible for Senator Mohammed�s disagreement with the senate
leadership on most issues.
This was so evident during the muscle
flexing between the senate and the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
Mallam Nasir El-Rufai where the suspended deputy chairman was said to be the
only senator that stood firm on the side of the minister. How the battle ended
is today history.
Analysts said his suspension verdict was a
pay back to a disloyal senator by a leadership in which he reposed no
confidence.
The bubble burst last week Thursday when
Senator Mohammed was alleged to have confronted his boss over poor handling of
the committee�s fund.
Alhaji Mohammed was alleged to have
slapped Mrs. Anisulowo in the full glare of hundreds of people when the Ogun
State born senator could not give immediate answer to Mohammed�s enquiry over
the N1.2m committee money.
Prompt intervention of Senator Idris Kuta
and a combined team of policemen and state security service in the National
Assembly saved the situation from degenerating into a full blown fight.
The news about the said N1.2 million
senatorial slap spread like wild fire with Senator Anisulowo telling the world
that she was given a dirty slapping by Senator Mohammed for what I didn�t do".
But Senator Mohammed in a Statement
thereafter denied slapping Anisulowo saying that it was very unfortunate that
she had insisted that I had slapped her.
Senator Anisulowo in a letter that may
have won over many senators to her side claimed that Senator Isa Mohammed indeed
gave her a "dirty slap" in the public.
Senator Anisulowo who said she decided to
distance herself from Alhaji Mohammed when she discovered that he was "too
temperamental" told Saturday Champion that her problem with him started
the day she queried Senator Mohammed for withdrawing N500,000 committee�s fund
without her approval as the rule demands.
Our problem started when he learn�t that I
took estacode from the committee fund, money which is really my right as
committee chairman and I did that because senate could not pay for my trip to
the IPCP meeting abroad."
"And when I left for that meeting he now
collected N500,000 from the committee�s secretary without my approval and I have
asked the officials to account for the money".
But Mohammed had earlier accused Mrs.
Anisulowo of running the affairs of the committee like her "personal estate".
How he was suspended. Little did Senator
Mohammed know that he will be cut to size Tuesday after his moves to pacify the
senators for his alleged misconduct.
In a dramatic show of reconciliation
before the commencement of sitting on Tuesday Senator Mohammed had walked to
senate�s president seat where Senator Anisulowo was discussing with Senator
Mantu who presided over the senate last week and gave her a heartly embrace.
This was quickly applauded by some
senators and this further encouraged the embattle senator to pump hands with
virtually all the Senators in the chamber.
But immediately, Senator Mantu called the
senate to order, Senator Clement Awoyelu moved a motivative order 14 of the
senate standing rules.
Senator Awoyelu in the motion (order of
privilege) asked the senate to condemn the action of Senator Mohammed while
referring the matter to the senate committee on Ethics and privileges for full
scale investigation. His motion which ended up suspending Isa Mohammed was
seconded by Senator Emma Anosike.
But Senator Timothy Adudu in an amendment
however asked the senate to enpunge the contamination because according to him
to condemn while the ethic committee is investigating the saga amount to putting
the cart before the horse."
But an amendment of Senator Bassey Henshaw
asking the senate to go into executive session to discuss the issue was largely
supported by most senators who spoke there after on the motion on Tuesday.
According to the lawmakers, there was no
need referring the matter to the ethics committee when the facts of the matter
was so clear.
The senate through a simple voice vote
resolved to go into closed door session to enable it take a specific decision on
the indecent.
Sources said that Senator Mohammed at the
closed door session continued with his apologies Saturday Champion learnt
that senators in turn tongue lashed him for his action.
According to him, the meeting dragged for
so long because members could not immediately agree on the form of punitive
sanction to drive the senate�s abhorrence to such act.
The senators decided between two and four
weeks suspension on Senator Mohammed "Because the senator in question showed
enough remorse".
Saturday Champion
gathered that the closed door session was characterised by high level intrigues
as some northern senators re-grouped to save their kinsmen from a more punitive
sanction.
A few Senators were said to have asked for
outright forgiveness of senator Mohammed in view of that fact that he had
publicly apologised for his action.
Source alleged that nothing would have
stopped the senate from suspending Senator Mohammed because according to him the
verdict was already known by some privileged senators before the commencement of
sitting.
What happened on Tuesday was just to
announce the judgement on the floor to rubbish him".
Pundits said that it would have been naive
for Senator Isa Mohammed to think that he would go scot free for slapping a
senator from the same state with the number one citizen in the country.
He was roundly condemned, for assaulting a
woman, indeed a mother and former minister of state for education.
Afterall, Mrs. Anisulowo had in an
exclusively interview with Saturday Champion said I agreed that "Senator
Mohammed is a ranked Senator, but I too is a ranked Senator because I have been
a minister of the Federal republic.
The senator at the end of the closed door
asked its committee chairman on information Senator Tawar Wada to accompany
Senator Mohammed to address the press on the senate decision.
Senator Mohammed was asked to speak first
and for the third time he offered his profused apologise for his action.
According to him, "in the life of every
human being one is bound to see some trials and temptation and what really
happened last week was very unfortunate and because everybody in this senate is
either a brother or sister to me".
"Isa Mohammed in the name of Almighty God
apologise to every citizen of Nigeria, especially our mothers that I should be
forgiven and God will bless Nigeria", he said.
The bomb shell however came from the
senate spokesman senator Wada who said that the senate decided to suspend
senator Mohammed to serve as a deterrent to others.
According to him, the senate as a body
that is expected to be paragon of virtue for this country regrets this action
and really show its displeasure.
The senate therefore in consideration of
the circumstances of all that took place, the gravity of the offence the
unreserved apology from Senator Isa Mohammed and the remorse showed by him as
well as the concern shown by the entire state of Niger for the unity of this
country, the senate decided to accept the apology of Senator Mohammed.
Most people thought that he had ended his
speech, but the soft speaking Wada declared on the whole the senate therefore
considered that it can mete a punishment which has been mitigated against the
distinguished colleague.
"The senate therefore resolved to suspend
Senator Isa Mohammed for two week and I believe that it acts as a deterrent to
all. Other senators and in fact all citizen of this country".
That was how the six feet tall senator
from Niger was moved out of the hallow chamber on Tuesday.
And he picked some of his personal
belonging and left the complex immediately after the news briefing.,
Source close to legislators quarter said
that the suspended senator may have returned to Niger that same day where he was
alleged to have narrated his ordeal to his anxious supporters in the state.
The moral question
Although Senator Mohammed was roundly
condemned for his action, the hard question is did Senator Iyabo Anisulowo ever
misappropriated the said N1.2 million.
Pundit are of the opinion that such
allegation should not be swept under the carpet, at least in the spirit of the
ongoing anti-corruption crusade which ofcourse is the hallmark of Chief
Obasanjo�s administration.
Interestingly, the senate in her
deliberation did not bother about the alleged mismanagement to the committee
fund or other remote cause of the clash between a chairman and her deputy.
It is also worrisome as the senators
vigorously argued against dragging the matter to the committee on Ethic and
privileges.
Another hard question which Senator
Anisulowo had attempted to answer is whether a committee chairman or any member
of committee pays himself or herself estacode for foreign trip from the
committee�s fund.
At least Mrs. Anisulowo had confirmed that
funding of her foreign trip from the committee�s had triggered the clash.
She however said that it was her right to
do so, since according to the said trip was duely approved by the senate but
these was no direct funding from the general senate allocation.
The clash had indeed further exposed some
contradiction in the senate.
It has further confirmed the feeling in
some quarters that committee has become a channel through which members could
help themselves.
Source alleged that some members of
committees would at the beginning of a legislative session pile pressure on
their chairmen to share the committee�s fund up front to them, while leaving
little for the secretariat.
Some chairmen who had refused to do this
were said to either be threatened or harassed.
This is more in the senate because fund
are usually allocated to each standing committee to run its affairs for the
session.
Did we not say that money is the root of
all evil, if not why should a senator adjudged to be stupendously rich slap a
motherly looking Anisulowo over money.
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