Legislators loyal to former dictator, General Ibrahim Babangida, are plotting to oust the Senate President, another Babangida boy, Mr. David Mark, in a palace coup reminiscent of 40 years of military rule in Nigeria.
SENATORS who are loyalists of the former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, are angry over the recent composition of Senate Committees by the Senate President, David Mark, saying he disrespected them in the exercise.
An aggrieved member of the ‘IBB Boys’ group from the North Central is said to have been leading the group in the past two weeks and he is reported to have begun a recruitment drive outside the group of former military retirees who are now in the chamber in order to impeach the Senate President.
Although, Mark was a member of the famous ‘IBB Boys’ group during the military era, some of his colleagues who are now in the Senate alleged that he betrayed their godfather by supporting former President Olusegun Obasanjo during the aborted third term campaign.
The ex-military men-turned senators also refused to vote for David Mark during the contest for Senate Presidency on June 5.
But while some of them were said to have re-ignited their relationship with Mark after the contest for the Senate Presidency, a particular member of that class of former military officers who was not named a committee chairman during the composition of committees is currently leading the campaign to unseat the Senate President.
The senator, who was said to have mentioned his grievances to a number of Northern senators during the recess, was said to have plotted how IBB would be dragged into the matter.
Some of the class of ‘IBB Boys’ were said to have discussed the matter with IBB shortly after the birthday celebrations in Minna last week and had intensified ways of tightening the noose around the neck of the Senate President ahead of the resumption on September 4.
A source in Abuja said that the aggrieved senators had taken the matter to the Minna General and had told him to call all his ‘boys’ together and ensure that they work against Mark.
Sources said the aggrieved senators had also told Babangida to impress it on the candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) who contested against Mark in April, Young Alhaji, to insist on seeing through his case in the tribunal.
But another source said that Mark was not sleeping on the matter and had attempted to break the ranks of ‘IBB Boys’ in the Senate with the appointment of some of them as committee chairmen.
For instance, Mark had named the campaign managers of his rival in the Senate presidency race, Senator George Akume, as committee chairmen, a move seen as a deliberate attempt to break the ranks of the opposition.
“You know that the group which call itself ‘IBB Boys’ is aggrieved and one of them from the North Central has taken up the matter as if it is a personal quarrel between him and Mark. He is not happy that he was not named as committee chairman and he is calling the others together,” a senator told the Nigerian Tribune.
The senator said that some Northern senators who did not want any headache for the current leadership would intervene.
But the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, told the Nigerian Tribune that the composition of Senate committees was done in accordance with procedures and a formula known to all members.
He said that the Senate did not know about the existence of a group like ‘IBB Boys’ in the upper chamber, adding that the composition of the committees was fair to senators.
“The Senate does not know of any group like ‘IBB Boys’. What we know of is that there are formula and procedures for the composition of committees and we followed those procedures and the formula during the composition. The composition was fair to all.”
