Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim, has lambasted Senator Kabiru Marafa, advising him to go and defend himself before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, and stop creating distractions by ceaselessly attacking Senate President Bukola Saraki. He advised Marafa to abide by the rules of the Senate which he swore to uphold upon his inauguration as a Senator.

Senator Ibrahim said that Saraki, of whom he is a loyalist, will not like to join issues with Senator Marafa, who has been billed to appear before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, on issues bordering on ethics, decorum and allegedly uttering of unguarded statements unbecoming of a distinguished senator.

Speaking through a statement issued today in Abuja, Ibrahim further accused Marafa of practically seeking for continued relevance in the Senate, saying: “There is something wrong about the fact that out of 109 Senators, Senator Marafa is standing alone abusing everybody, perhaps to continue to get relevance. And it is bad that he is always advising others to follow his path.”

Ibrahim charged the press to be wary of people who play politics with almost any issue because they want to be in the news.

He said that Marafa should not reduce the issue of the controversies bordering on 2016 Budget to the creation of Saraki, saying: “Saraki should not be brought into the case because there was a clear case of versions of the budget even as confirmed by the Nigerian President.”

He noted: “The President himself on January 15, 2016 wrote to admit that there were versions of the budget. Also, after the various irregularities pointed out and openly admitted by the Ministers during Budget Defence sessions, the chairmen of the Committees on Appropriation, in both Chambers, on February 10, 2016, jointly addressed the press that the February 25 date set for the passage of the 2016 budget would not be feasible. In fact, it was the House Chairman who first gave the indication to that effect.”

Ibrahim equally dismissed the allegation by Marafa that Saraki doctored the Senate Standing Order and unilaterally created committees. “It should be noted that the Standing Order was in place before Dr. Saraki was elected Senate President. It had been there from the Seventh Senate,” he stated.

•Photo shows Senator Kabiru Marafa.