From JULIANA TAIWO-OBALONYE, Abuja

THE new Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resourc­es (Downstream), Kabiru Marafa (Zamfara) has said the Senate com­mittee reshuffle was part of recon­ciliatory moves to end the crises in the Senate and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He has also described as a joke any plan to impeach President Muham­madu Buhari.

While describing committee re­shuffle as normal parliamentary prac­tice, Marafa, who is the spokesman of the Senate Unity Forum Senators, told State House correspondents af­ter meeting with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, that it will bring peace to the Senate.

He said: “I think reshuffling com­mittees is not new in any parlia­ment. What made that Thursday a little new is the circumstances of the emergence of this leadership and what followed.

“What happened on Thurs­day is a result of the efforts the party has been putting in for rec­onciliation in the last few days.” Marafa admitted that peace has re­turned to the Senate, saying “Yes, as long as the party comes in and the will of the party is respected. We are not at loggerheads with anybody. It is not as if we hate any individual. The current Senate President, Bu­kola Saraki, has been one of my very close friends and senior in the 7th Assembly. What you saw happen is what I would describe as loyalty to the party. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria recog­nises only the party, it doesn’t recog­nise any individual”.

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Asked if the Senate Unity Forum Senators will be withdrawing the case in court, he said it was the par­ty that has the final say on whether to withdraw the cases in court.

Marafa said: “We didn’t go to court because we didn’t like the face of those that emerged, but this is the will of our party. During the 7th Assembly, we accorded the rul­ing party at that time the utmost cooperation and we knew the com­mittees that we were given that time. “But now, we are in power, it is our own time and we should be accorded all the necessary cooperation. We should be seen to respect the party. If the party says withdraw the case, we will go on to withdraw the case”, he said.

On the rumoured plan impeach­ment of President Buhari, he said, no serving senator is contemplating such impeachment.

Reports in the Media last week claimed that there were moves to impeach the President. Marafa, de­scribed the report as a huge joke.