FEMI Adesina, Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, says the President has no hand in the drama playing out in Benue State’s House of Assembly.

Adesina wondered how Buhari who is currently attending the ECOWAS/ECCAS Summit in Togo could possibly be responsible for an internal squabble between two arms of government in Benue State.

“Statements have been issued by different interest groups, insinuating that the President may have a hand in the development in Benue. This is paranoia at its worst, coming from people who have wittingly positioned themselves against the clean-up of the country, and the way we do things,” Adesina said in a statement on Tuesday.

“President Buhari will never be part of any unconstitutional act, and any attempt to link him with the inglorious past, when minority number of lawmakers impeached governors, will not stick.”

Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, had issued a joint statement on Monday, condemning the reported commencement of impeachment proceedings against Governor Samuel Ortom by a minority group in the State’s assembly.

“The situation in Benue State House of Assembly has grave implication for the nation’s democracy and it represents a throw-back to the period of dictatorship in our country,” part of the statement read.

“It also represents how the Nigeria Police are being misused to achieve a political end. In a statement recently, the Presidency derisively referred to an era in the past where a minority number of legislators was used to impeach Governors who were unfriendly with the Federal Government. What we are seeing in Benue now is a return to that inglorious era.”

Several other persons have also condemned the recent development in Benue, saying there is a link between the happenings and Ortom’s defection from the APC.

“What they have done is an act of illegality. They don’t even have the quorum or the number to impeach the governor,” a legal practitioner, Inibehe Effiong, told Premium Tims.

“The federal government is apparently responsible in connivance with the police in staging the culture of impunity in Benue State and this may not be unconnected with the decision of the governor to leave the APC. It is clearly partisan,” Effiong said.

But Adesina described the attempts to rope Buhari into the matter as ” paranoia at its worst”.

“President Buhari will always stand by all that is noble and fair, and will reject attempts to drag him into infamy.,” Adesina said.

“People who stoke fires by deliberate acts of omission or commission, and then summon the President to come and put it out will find that this President will be guided by the Constitution at all times, no matter the attempt to entangle him in unwarranted controversies.”