Unravel blockade of Senate by DSS —Sen Gershom Bassey insists on inquiry

Out Correspondent|18 August 2018 

SENATOR Gershom Bassey, the Senator representing the Southern Senatorial District of Cross River State has once again insisted  for  a thorough investigation to  unravel the circumstances surrounding the barricade of the National Assembly by operatives of Department  for State Security Services, DSS, last week.

Speaking on a Channels television programme recently, Senator Bassey absolved the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of any  blame in the barricade stating that the event of  that day cannot be swept under the carpet if the country’s democracy will survive. 

‘There is a lot of drama in our politics – that is the truth but  for you to blame  the PDP  for the barricade of that day  is absolutely  wrong. I am calling for an enquiry to find out what  really happened; let’s not speculate or dramatise or over embellish it, we should look for what really happened’. 

Senator Bassey who is the Vice Chairman of Senate Committee on Petroleum Upstream sector said the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has information which is not at the disposal which is not available  to other Nigerians that  made him to sack the DSS boss and should avail the whole country of such information.

‘Clearly, the Vice President  is privy to facts most of us don’t have. We need to know all the facts which led to take the  decisive action he took- we need to know all the facts of what happened’. 

He said anyone can put up a conspiracy theory that the PDP is behind the barricade which is the reason he is requesting for an investigation to unravel the truth of what took place that day.

‘Like what the Senate President said, the DSS works with the executive and does not take orders from the Senate. We need to know who gave the orders  to stop speculation  that the Senate is behind the barricade’.

He said he woke up early in the morning of that say and saw on television images of DSS officials barricading the National Assembly and had to rush there and was stopped at the entry gate by men in mask and he decided  to  go to the other gate and was also stopped.

‘There were so many guns in the national assembly that day. Obviously,  we got information that there was a plot to impeach the senate president. We heard that some people in a bus would be allowed into the Chambers to impeach the Senate President so we went again to the main entrance and we were allowed in and we waited at the front of the chambers to see what was going to happen’. 

He stated that the issues on the impeachment of the Senate President or any of its principal officials are unambiguous  which requires that two third of the seventy three members of the Senate should sign a resolution demanding the removal of such official before he is impeached.

‘Even a senator from APGA  can be senate president so long as he is voted into office by majority of the senators and once he is  voted into office  to remove him you need to follow the rules of the Senate. You must get two third of the entire members to sign a resolution before he is removed. If they have the numbers to impeach the Senate President let them go ahead if they don’t have nothing will happen’. 

On the defection of Senator Godswill Akpabio to the APC from the PDP, Senator Bassey said the political balance in the Senate has not been disrupted. 

‘The Senate President and fourteen Senators from APC  have come to PDP and the Senate Minority Leader left  PDP to join the APC and there is nothing unusual about that’. 

The Senate he says has been bipartisan and has given President Muhammadu Buhari all the support he needs to actualise his promises to Nigerians.

‘We in PDP have been very supportive of the APC government and given the President a free hand. We have been quite cooperative and have given this man a free hand to deliver the promises he has made to Nigerians. We only criticise when it is absolutely necessary because the success of this government is in our interest’