Senate President Bukola Saraki says he cannot “descend into the gutter” with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The senate president said this in response to the harsh comments Yekini Nabena, spokesman of APC, made about him.

In a statement issued earlier, Nabena described Saraki as a failure who swims in controversy.

He said having publicly humiliated his father and sister, Saraki’s betrayal did not come as a surprise to the ruling party.

But in his response issued by Yusuph Olaniyonu, his spokesman, Saraki said: “We can’t descend into the gutter with these characters”.

He added that the APC had not recovered from Tuesday’s attempt to subvert democracy.

Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) had prevented lawmakers from gaining entrance to the national assembly.

The lawmakers on elected on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had accused their APC counterparts of attempting to remove Saraki with the connivance of security operatives.

The ruling party has been mounting pressure on Saraki to step down since he defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but the senate president said only two-thirds of his colleague can remove him.