A group, the Integrity Youth Alliance, has criticised a statement credited to a National Ex-Officio member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Yekini Nabena, who described as immoral the continued stay of Senator Bukola Saraki as President of the Senate, despite various allegations of graft against him.

In a statement jointly signed by its National Coordinator, Kelvin Adegbenga, and Publicity Secretary, Danjuma Lamido, at the weekend in Abuja, the group reminded Yekini Nabena that Sen. Bukola Saraki remains innocent until proven guilty.

The group said: “Nabena, can’t compare the suspension of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, over allegations of corruption, to that of Saraki in the sense that the Senate Committee has already indicted Babachir Lawal while no institution has indicted Sen. Bukola Saraki.

“We wonder the criteria Nabena used to conclude that, ‘the Senate has completely lost its legitimacy, with Saraki as president?’ This is the Senate that Nigerians has more hope in than the Executive in term of governance, transparency and the rule of law.

“We know the antecedents of Yekini Nabena in hiring Civil Society Organisations, to do hatchet work, so we are not surprise at him calling on Civil Society Organisations, former and serving Senators ‘to remain steadfast in their quest to kick Saraki out of office, if the current fight against corruption was to have any tangible effect’.

“We laughed at Nabena’s ignorance when he said that 'Senator Saraki cannot continue to preside over a lawmaking organ of a government that is vigorously fighting corruption in Nigeria when he has a load of corruption allegations hanging on his neck.

We challenge Nabena to prove the corruption allegations against Senator Saraki or keep his mouth shut!”

The group called on the Senate under the “distinguished Sen. Bukola Saraki to continue with his relentless effort in giving Nigerians good governance and adequate laws to make Nigeria great again.”

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