You can’t impeach Osinbajo, Faparusi tells Senate

A member of the seventh House of Representatives, Bamidele Faparusi, has advised the Senate to forget the impeachment threat against

acting President Yemi Osinbajo but to embrace a political solution to end the controversy surrounding the appointment of the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu.

He said the mere fact that Osinbajo expressed his opinion as a senior member of the bar that Magu needed no confirmation from the Senate to retain his position did not constitute a gross misconduct that could warrant a  resort to impeachment plot.

In a statement in Ado Ekiti on Monday, the APC governorship aspirant in the forthcoming poll in Ekiti State, expressed regret that the APC’s control over the National Assembly had waned in spite of having overwhelming majority in the two chambers.

He said the lingering crisis between the Presidency and the National Assembly could only be resolved if the two arms understood the doctrine of mutual respect and the principle of separation of powers.

Faparusi said the rumoured clandestine impeachment plot against Osinbajo had been heating up the polity and dividing the country along  ethnic lines.

He urged those behind the evil plan to refrain in the interest of the nation.

“The constitution gives the power to appoint on the executive arm and the retention of Magu as acting Chairman of the EFCC did not  negate the constitution. The Presidency and perhaps the acting President Osinbajo could be deemed to have trampled on the law if he asked Magu to continue in substantive status.

“What I expect the two arms to do in the interest of our dear nation is to imbibe the principle of mutual respect. Nigerian citizens expected much from the President Muhammadu Buhari’s APC-led Federal Government in terms of the delivery of the dividends of democracy and impeachment is not popular now in their minds.

“In ending this crisis, I expect the two arms to exhibit mutual respect and think more of the people rather than reducing the crisis to personality clash,” he said.

Faparusi also described the triumph of the Peoples Democratic Party senatorial candidate, Dr. Ademola Adeleke, in the Saturday election in Osun West over his counterpart in the APC, Senator Mudashiru Hussain, as a signal that the APC must be meticulous by allowing the people to always have inputs in the emergence of  its candidates.