Senator Kabir Marafa accuses Senate President of blackmailing Buhari

Senator Kabir Marafa has accused Senate President, Bukola Saraki of using the 2016 budget to whip up controversy, so as to blackmail President Buhari.

Marafa is the Spokesman of Senate Unity Forum (SUF), a group of Senators allegedly opposed to Saraki's continued stay as Senate President.

The group that has called for the resignation of Saraki following his trial by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

The Senator said “Honestly speaking if am to comment on the controversy that has been trailing the 2016 budget in the Senate, I will say it is all the work of the 5th columnists there. You remember we woke up after 15 days or also of the receipt of the budget in the National Assembly. We woke up one day and the Senate President just came and said there is no budget, that the budget is stolen embarrassing everybody, but the following day the Speaker said is not stolen our own is here.”

Marafa also said “Next they said the budget is doctored, next they said the budget is padded, next they said there are discrepancies all over the place we knew how they came into the leadership of the National Assembly or the Senate. Was it a coincidence that the issue of padding and everything just came up after the Supreme Court said go and face your trial?

“Suddenly we started hearing that we cannot pass the budget as we promised because there are discrepancies and so on and so fort. In a nutshell, all the noise about the budget are all about this issue of corruption trial or CCT trial; that is all, no more no less,” he said.

Responding to calls for the Senate President’s resignation, Senator Dino Melaye reportedly said Bukola Saraki is irremovable.