The Senior Special Assistant to the president on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang has said reports stating that he apologized on his principal’s behalf, were a misrepresentation.
It has been a very strained relationship between the executive and the legislature, this side of heaven. Attorney General (AG) Abubakar Malami has sued principal and presiding officers of the senate, further driving a wedge in a frosty affair between the two arms of government.
When Okoi Obono-Obla who is the special assistant to the president on prosecution, appeared before a senate committee to explain why the senate president and his deputy were hauled before a court by the executive for forging parliament rules, he was walked out by lawmakers.
Obono-Obla said he was representing the attorney general, but the lawmakers would have none of it, insisting they had invited the AG and not an aide.
Mr. Obono-Obla had thereafter allegedly questioned the authority of the Nigerian Senate to summon the AG.
He also reportedly said the presidency had no confidence in the Senate Judiciary Committee that summoned the Attorney-General.
On Friday, reports made the rounds that presidential liaison officer Enang had apologized on behalf of the president for Mr Obono-Obla’s comments. But the presidential aide told online newspaper Premium Times that he did no such thing.
“I am a presidential liaison officer and I apologized for the inability of the Attorney-General to appear before the Senate when he was invited”, he said.
“He received a letter of invitation after he had already planned an official trip,” Mr. Enang said.
Mr. Enang said he had assured the senators that Mr. Malami would honour their invitation upon his return to the country.
“I said the attorney general will meet with the chairman of the Senate committee hearing the matter,” he said.
Mr. Enang, himself a former senator, said he apologized on behalf of Mr. Obono-Obla because he did not want the relationship between the lawmakers and Mr. Buhari to get frostier.
“I apologize for his comments. From what I heard, he was not complimentary to the senate,” Mr. Enang said. “We didn’t need to cause more trouble between the presidency and the Senate.”
Mr. Enang therefore urged Nigerians to dismiss reports that his apology was on behalf of the president, saying doing so, in this case, “would be terrible”.
“The president has not apologized. It is me that is apologizing for the inappropriate action of the person representing the Attorney-General”, he added.
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