Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume who represents Borno South in the red chamber, on Thursday confessed that he collected signatures to have Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu impeached because he wanted that position for himself.

The disclosure was made as the Senate discussed a report they considered offensive in the Nation Newspapers. The report had alleged that the 81 Senators (including 22 from the North) who gave Senate President Bukola Saraki a vote of confidence on Tuesday, were working behind the scenes to make Buhari fail as President.

The Senate had ordered an investigation into the story including unraveling the identity of the writer and the motive therein.

Senator Ali Ndume who contested the June 9 Deputy Senate President election with Ekweremadu, said he had to grudgingly accept his fate at some point.

“I personally still want to be senate president. I also believe that any of us will not mind to be the senate president. As for the deputy senate president, I contested against the deputy senate president. I did not contest with him to lose that election.

“I contested with him in order to win that election but it is God that gives power to whoever he wants. What ever happened on the 9th of June, my friend Ekweremadu became the deputy senate president.

“Let me say for the record and for those that were not in the 7th Senate, it is not something of pride, but I stand here to say, he is here, that I am the only person that attempted to impeach him.

“I collected signatures in order to impeach him because of certain things which I explained and we discussed”.

He said it has become imperative for every lawmaker to rally round the leadership for the good of the country.

“Why I am taking us through all these is because the nation is watching us and this drama that is going on cannot continue because that is not why we are here and this leadership thing whether we like it or not, whether we change it or we maintain this one, only one person will be the senate president.

“I want to say something about an issue that has been lingering in this Senate and it is about to distort or take us away from the main reason why we are here.

“I said it before and I am still maintaining this position. Each and every one of us here that is elected as a senator is qualified to be the senate president by all standards but it is only that out of the 109 of us, one has to be the senate president while another person has to be the deputy senate president. It so happened, that Senator Bukola Saraki is now our senate president”.