By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA – An All Progressives Congress APC governorship aspirant and senator representing Ondo north in the Senate, Robert Ajayi Borrofice has insisted that he and members of the Unity Forum would not be cowered into withdrawing the case they instituted against Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu leadership over forgery of Senate Rules.

Borrofice who spoke in Abuja after he picked his governorship nomination form at the APC secretariat, added that the Unity Forum to which he belongs is fighting the current senate leadership based on matters of principle, adding that the forum will continue to “fight to ensure that the image of the senate is redeemed.”

Borrofice spoke against the backdrop of the recent altercation between two senators, Dino Melaye of the “Likemind Senators” and Oluremi Tinubu of the “Unity Forum”.

“I am one of those people who went to court to challenge the election of the Senate principals and I maintain that we have done that on principle not because we hate anybody . We want to defend the integrity of the senate and the sanity of the rule of law.

“So, it is not that we are all working in the same direction, some of us are speaking out and I hope that you press men will give expression to our voices when we speak out. So, I can assure you that we will not be intimidated, we will continue to fight to ensure that the image of the senate is redeemed so that any senator in Nigeria can raise his head anywhere in the world and describe himself as senator”, he said.

Asked to comment on the agitation for restructuring of the country, Borrofice said; “the Senate again this year, we pray that we have enough time to send this amendment to Mr. President to assent to. If you look at it you will see that we are already restructuring with those amendments. Some of the things that are in the exclusive list of the federal government have been brought to the concurrent list of the state and we are actually committed to true federalism, fiscal federalism.

“Some of us are in support of the State police, even though we know is subject to misuse. We believe that certain items that are now in the exclusive list of the federal government should be transferred to the state.

“So we are doing something about it, we are not making noise about it and by the time we get this amendment thing, many Nigerians would know we have done a good job not only in terms of structure but in the area of revenue allocation; these are very important issues we cannot deny.”

The governorship aspirant also berated the Ondo state governor, Olusegun Mimiko for “plunging the state into debt”.

According to the governorship aspirant, Ondo should be one of the best in terms of economic viabiliity, adding that while the governor inherited about N38 billion in cash, he has now plunged the state into a debt of N108 billion.