The Senate was indeed rattled by confession of the self-acclaimed Boko Haram spokesman Umar Sanda Kondugha who alleged that Senator Ali Ndume is not only a member of the sect but also a sponsor. Ndume’s arrest and detention sent a resolute message to an unsettled senate. LEADERSHIP SUNDAY’s UCHENNA AWOM chronicles the confusion that enveloped the Upper Chamber and the associated undercurrents trailing the unfolding saga.
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What an unsettled senate and a bewildered Nigerian public? What an irony that the hunter may have surreptitiously become the hunted? For a senate that has been constantly spewing fire, exhibiting real apprehension and ultimate concern over the security situation in the country to be caught napping in such web of intrigues with the arrest of one its members equates an ‘unprecedented embarrassment’.
The arrest of Senator Ali Ndume last Monday over his alleged sponsorship of the dreaded Islamic sect may have pulled the rug from under a stunned senate which before the ugly incident have busied themselves on strategies to tackle the frightening security situation.? Senator Ndume representing Borno South on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was arrested last Monday following the damning confession of self-acclaimed spokesman of the violent sect, Ali Sanda Umar Konduga who named the ranking lawmaker as a major sponsor of the violence.
Konduga was said to have been in the custody of the State Security Services (SSS) over his alleged involvement in the activities of the dreaded sect. Konduga (a.k.a al Zawahiri) was reported to have told the SSS that Ndume did not only furnish them with classified information, but also gave them? the phone numbers of some highly placed individuals in the society, who according to him, the group had sent threat text messages to.?
Konduga, in his oral submission before the media also confessed that before he was stripped his job as the spokesman of the group,? he had sent threat messages to governors of Niger, Nasarawa, former Minister of Works, Sanusi Dagash, chairman of the Borno State Election Tribunal Justice Sabo and Ambassador Dalhatu Tafida. The confession provided the leeway for the presiding magistrate Oye Bola Oyewumi to convict Konduga a day after his confession at the SSS headquarters last Tuesday.
Expectedly, Ndume pleaded not guilty to the seven-count charges preferred against him by the SSS on Tuesday. The business of the senate a day after Ndume’s arrest and detention centred on his fate and how the senate would respond. Some of the senators at the closed-door session on Tuesday took turns to slam Ndume, insisting that the embattled lawmaker had further dragged the name of the senate in the mud. It was like a Babel of voices, a scenario which underscored the confusion and obvious embarrassment.
It will be recalled that the senate had penultimate week on resumption gone into an executive session to discuss the security situation. At the end, they mandated the security-related committees to start fresh consultations with the nation’s security agencies on the effort so far made to curb the rising menace.
However, at the closed-door session last Tuesday, over the Ndume affair, some of the senators were said to have voiced their opinion that Ndume should be left alone to carry his cross. Sources disclosed that most senators who spoke on the Ndume development at the closed session took time to lambast him. Some of them argued that his alleged involvement in the activities of a group that had claimed responsibility of several bomb attacks in the land, which killed scores was indeed; ‘ a big slap on the integrity of the senate’.
But others for some political consideration and what is seen as a sensible adherence to moral and legal convention, insisted that it would be hasty to abandon him at that point when his guilt has not been proven.
“This argument influenced the consensus reached”. That consensus according to a sources informed the final decision – that while the senate would want the law to take its full course – it would remain on the side of the lawmaker for now, since his travails remains in the realm of mere allegation which must be proved in the law court. They also urged the security operatives to go ahead with full scale investigation into the allegation.
Spokesman of the senate, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe at a briefing said that the senate would want the law to take its full course. He however said that the senate as an institution will continue to recognize Senator Ndume until he is proven guilty of his alleged complicity in the activities of the sect.
Abaribe told the press conference that senate as an institution that has respect for rule of law would not stand on the way of justice, adding that senate would only take position after the due process of investigation has been completed. According to him, “the Senate is very much aware and has gotten the same information that other Nigerians have gotten about an alleged claim by a member of the Boko Haram sect concerning a member of the senate and a member of the National Assembly. The Senate wishes to state very clearly that it has always been in the forefront of urging the security agencies to do the necessary job to make Nigeria safe for everyone of us.
“And so, the Senate wishes to urge the security agencies to continue their investigation because they have told us that the investigation is continuing and at the end of their investigation, they should come out with their report and if anyone is indicted, they should go ahead and follow the dictate of the rule of law as enunciated in the constitution.”
On whether, the Senate will suspend Senator Ali Ndume against the backdrop of the present circumstance. Abaribe stated that, “naturally, the Senate would be sympathetic with its member and it is also worried about such an insinuation but at the moment, we are very well aware that it is just a mere allegation and the security agencies have said they are investigating the allegation. So, we stand by our member until the investigations are concluded.
“What we are saying is that an allegation has been made, the personality involved is still a member of the senate and the senate cannot on the basis of mere allegation go ahead to make any statement concerning the person. What we are saying in effect is that investigation should be concluded, indictment made and then, the Senate can now come out with a position.? As at today, what we know is that a mere allegation has been made and investigation has not been concluded.
“The constitution of Nigeria has a presumption of innocence and what that means is that every accused person is presumed innocent until he is found guilty. So, what we are saying is that it is a mere accusation and we want the due process to be followed. The due process of course, is what the state security agencies have told us that they are still investigating the matter. So, the senate cannot come to any conclusion when the investigation is going on”.
Responding to a hypothetical question by reporters on whether the arrest of Ndume signals that the senate is now a hub of persons that are involved in the sect activities? He said; “It is just one member of the National Assembly out of 500, that was mentioned and this is, like I continue to say, a mere allegation. I will urge you to exercise some patience and give security agencies some time. You will recall that this senate has been very supportive of the security agencies to curb the menace and we commend them and are looking up to them to do a thorough job. If there are allegations, we expect such to be thoroughly investigated and properly handled and then, whatever comes out of it, we will then come back to the government of the day”.
Abaribe went on to reject suggestions on whether the senate would start internal investigation to unravel the possibility of more sect members in their fold. His words: “Will the senate attempt to further investigate to know if there are other members of Book Haram among its fold? It is not the job of the senate to do security investigation, it is the job of security agents and we have given them free hand, supported them and done everything to make sure they do their job as efficaciously as possible.”
Abaribe’s explanations underscored the apparent worry and apprehension in the senate in recent times despite several efforts it has made to interface with the executive arm to fight the menace. The senate it will be recalled had in the last two months summoned security chiefs for closed sessions during, where the lawmakers tasked them to fish out members of the dreaded Islamic sect, Boko Haram, and its sponsors for immediate prosecution.
Against this background the shock of senators when one of them was fingered as a sponsor of the dreaded sect is perhaps understandable. Ndume’s arrest no doubt was an unimagined shock that may have put a question mark on the seriousness of the upper chamber in the fight against terrorism. While such insinuations may lack logical grounding, yet the current reality nonetheless implies that the chamber needs urgent soul-searching, to at least sieve out the blacklegs in their midst.
Already there are rising fears that Ndume, though yet to be found guilty, may not be alone in the alleged crime. Speculations are that some of the lawmakers may soon be quizzed for similar offense. Before Ndume’s arrest, most senators have no reason to think that one of them could be alleged to be dining with the dreaded sect. The fears now stem from the fact of a likelihood of a lurking mole in the chamber capable of disclosing some of the discussions between the senate and the security chiefs, which were held behind closed doors to the dreaded sect, if the confession of Konduga is anything to go by.??
Sadly enough, some of the security chiefs at such closed-door sessions were said to have revealed their action plan on how to crack down on the fundamentalists, only for such security plan to be transmitted to the group the next minute.
In any case it is too early to predict how Ndume’s current travails would end. Already, political leaders from his home state have distanced him from the allegation. Ndume who was a prominent Minority Leader in the House of Representatives in the last tenure presents a cherubic image that suggest strongly that he may not be in the league of politicians that can be considered as violent. But whichever way it ends, he would no longer be the same.
Pressures would be mounted on him as exemplified already by some seeming hasty suggestions by some observers that he should tender unreserved apologies to the security chiefs, who most of them including Ndume himself had accused of incompetence and failure. Ironically Ndume is still a member of the presidential team on security threat in the North East. He was reported to have spoken extensively on the subject matter at a recent meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan. Such disposition paints his passion to end the activities of the sect quickly and some other observers believe that his enthusiasm may have incurred him the wrath of the sect, hence his present travails.
Ndume had in his personal capacity addressed the media on the activities of the joint task force that was sent on peace keeping mission to Maiduguri, Borne State capital. At that briefing, he condemned what he claimed was the harm the soldiers on peace keeping have been unleashing on the innocent people of the state. This also elicits a different interpretation of his real position.
Curiously, it was learnt that the lawmakers including Ndume at their last session with the security chiefs were reported to have looked at Inspector General of Police (IGP) Hafiz Ringim and others as if the solution to the activities of Boko Haram was theirs only. The security chiefs’ penultimate week came under fire as the senators took stock of the renewed bomb attacks and killings in some parts of the country.
The senators in one of such session with the security chiefs came short of calling for the sacking of Ringim and others over their seeming inability to crack down on the dreaded sect. A handful of the senators said to be opposed and critical of President Goodluck Jonathan were said to have hijacked the debate at the closed session and launched a serial verbal attack on him.
A few of them were reported to have canvassed a no-confidence vote on the president and his security chiefs, but they were literarily cut short by the prompt intervention of the Senate president Senator David Mark and that saved the day. Mark it was learnt told his colleagues that it would be hasty to slam the security chiefs without first hearing from them.
The situation now is that the fate of Senator Ndume, as unfortunate as it stands, is apparently the needed tonic for the Senate and indeed National Assembly to go full throttle in the fight to tackle the Boko Haram menace, devoid of religious and ethnic induced lethargy that have characterised the effort in recent times.