…Publicly Apologizes Thrice In One Day
This is not the best of times for Senator Ita Enang as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Senate Matters, and sources close to the former National Assemblyman said all his predicaments have made him sober and more drawn to God in penitence.
Ita Enang, whose recent moves had backfired in large measures last Friday caused a serious embarrassment by dropping President Muhammadu Buhari’s name in apologizing to the Senators, the Senate and the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Public Petitions.
Reports on Friday had indicated that President Buhari through Senator Ita Enang, had openly apologized to the senate over the statement made by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) Abubakar Malami.
Rather than appear before the senate, Malami had sent the Special Assistant to the President on Prosecution, Okoi Obono-Obla who told the senators that Malami was not answerable to the senate.
Obono-Obla later told journalists that the sitting of the committee as illegal and contempt of court, adding that the Presidency lacked confidence in the panel.
In his bid to play smart and gain the confidence of the senators who had earlier barred him from entering the chambers along with the Minister’s representative, Enang hurriedly addressed a Press conference, announcing that the President was sorry for the comment by his aide Obono-Obla.
Senator Enang said the development had prompted him to convene the press conference at his residence as a way of easing tensions between the presidency and the National Assembly.
“I am a presidential liaison officer and I apologize for the inability of the Attorney-General to appear before the Senate when he was invited.
On the verge of being axed for undermining the powers of the President, Enang had to make frantic calls to journalists, pleading that the comments and apologies he offered were his personal views.
He refuted media reports that President Muhammadu Buhari had apologized to the Senate for the conduct and comments of Mr Obono-Obla, dismissing the reports as a misrepresentation of his comments.
In a sober tone, the smooth talking lawyer retracted his earlier position and laid claims to the entire apologies as his own cooked up story, not endorsed by his boss.
But Ita Enang’s woes is compounded by the refusal of the national assembly to grant him further access into the complex, thereby hindering his duties as liaison officer. For this reason, the Ididep, Ibiono Ibom born former councilor again offered some words of plea.
He said he was not a witness in the ongoing forgery case against some senators and that the Presidency was not lining up its aides as witnesses in the case.
Enang said he was in the witness dock as the chairman of the Committee on Rules and Business of the 7th Senate, and not by virtue of his position as aide of he president.
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