President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, yesterday distanced himself from the alleged plot to remove Senator Robert Boroffice from the Senate and described the allegation of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) as unfounded and mischievous.
According to Senator Mark, Senator Boroffice, who represents Ondo North in the Senate, is the architect of whatever fate befell him in the on-going imbroglio over whether he (Boroffice) could retain his seat in the Senate after decamping from Labour Party(LP), on which platform he was elected, to join the ACN or not.
ACN spokesperson, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had in a signed statement recently accused the Senator Mark-led Senate of using ‘arm-twisting’ tactics to declare Boroffice seat vacant.
But the President of the Senate recalled that Boroffice himself wrote to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) notifying the commission of his resignation from the Labour Party (LP) on which platform he was elected and requested the Commission’s opinion on his decision to join the ACN while alleging division in LP. But the Commission in its response however declared that “it (Commission) has no record of any division in the Labour Party to justify your (Boroffice) resignation from the Party”.
The INEC response dated 13th September, 2012 and signed by the Secretary of the Commission, Abdullahi A. Kaugama, further stated that “Section 68(1)(g) (of the 1999 Constitution as amended) does not operate in your favour as there is no division in the Labour Party”’ he further said.
It is therefore incongruous and smacks of sitting logic on its head for the ACN or its spokesperson to conclude that Senator Mark led senate has deployed ‘jackboot’ strategies to declare the seat of Senator Boroffice vacant.
According to the president of the Senate, it is wicked and mischievous for the CAN to allege that the Senate leadership has a hand in Boroffice’s fate when it was the Senator that personally took himself to INEC.
“Why did Distinguished Senator Boroffice write to INEC if he knew that the decision to vacate his seat or otherwise lies in the courts?” the President of the Senate asked.
Senator Mark noted that the import of INEC’s letter is that Senator Boroffice remains a Senator of the Federal Republic elected on the platform of the Labour Party. He can therefore not be recognized as a Senator of the ACN extraction.
