TheCable

Enyinnaya Abaribe, senator representing Abia south, says there is an attempt to drive a wedge between the south-eastern legislators and their northern counterparts.

Abaribe said this on the floor of the senate on Wednesday while reacting to a publication that he was queried by senators over his involvement with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

He said senate should ask the newspaper to tell it who gave it “this erroneous and misleading information”.

“This morning Mr President, I was surprised to find ‘IPOB: senators query Abaribe over Kanu’s bail’. Mr President we have always said in this floor that anything the presiding officer says in the closed-door session that is the sum total of our discussion,” Abaribe said.

“And I remember yesterday that three points were made as a result of our discussion, which was Nigeria’s unity and effort by this senate to make sure we help in bringing peace to this country. The headline that purports to say that this is what happened in our closed-door session which of course did not happen does not in any way advance the course of peace in this country.

“My constituents have been worried, they have called me and they have been asking me and I have told them that it is not true and I will bring it up on the floor and ask the entire senate to please help us to ask the newspaper to produce whoever gave them this information.

“The senate does not query any of its members, that is the first place where they failed in casting this headline because each senator knows what we discussed and what came out at the end of it.

“I wish to be given the opportunity to lay this newspaper and ask this senate to please look at the attempt at driving a wedge between the south-east senators and the northern senators, because it was said here that the northern senators made a demand for which the south-east senators reluctantly agreed.

“Some people are bent on making sure that there is no peace but I know that God will not allow them.”

After Abaribe laid the newspaper before the senate, Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president, appealed to the media to be responsible.

“We expect our press to show high level of responsibility with the way they do their work. Publishing rumours will be the highest form of irresponsibility,” he said.

He then referred the matter to the committee on ethics.