The President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki; the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara; and other Principal Officers of the National Assembly on Thursday night angrily turned back from the Presidential Villa, otherwise known as Aso Rock, in Abuja, The Punch is reporting.
The lawmakers were reported to have a scheduled dinner with President Muhammadu Buhari over the 2018 budget.
The President was to host the lawmakers to the dinner at the new Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja by 8:30pm on Thursday.
The lawmakers, who were reported to have left for the dinner from Saraki’s residence, were said to have turned back from the gate when there was an insistence by the security team to search all of them individually.
They were asked, like other visitors, to come down from the vehicle in which they were all riding for security screening.
Owing to this, they turned back.
A quick visit to Saraki’s residence by the security team, led by the Chief Security Officer, did not yield a change of heart by the lawmakers, just as some of them had left.
However, Saraki and Dogara later returned to the Villa, where President Buhari was said to have apologized and rescheduled the dinner for next week Tuesday.
Buhari said the dinner, earlier arranged for Thursday, will now hold on Tuesday.
Thursday’s dinner meeting was attended by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo; the Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari; the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly (Senate), Sen. Ita Enang; and Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly (House of Representatives), Sumaila Kawu.
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