Disorder In Senate As 83 Members Pass Vote Of Confidence In Saraki

The Punch reports that the Senate, expectedly, had a stormy session on Tuesday as some members of the upper legislative chamber protested the passing of vote of confidence in the Senate president, Olusola Saraki, by 83 senators. Tuesday was the Senate’s first plenary since the arraignment of Saraki by the Code of Conduct Bureau for false asset declaration. The senior lawmakers had been on break since August 13. Members of the House of Representatives, however, on Tuesday, said they had chosen to support the anti-corruption crusade of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Speaker of the House, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, conveyed the position of the House in an address to lawmakers as they reconvened in Abuja after a six-week annual recess. There was uproar in the Senate as the senator representing Zamfara Central Senatorial District, Kabir Marafa, complained that he was denied the opportunity to air his own view before the Senate president subjected the confidence motion to vote.

Senator Babajide Omoworare also protested the inclusion of his name as a co-sponsor of the confidence vote in Saraki. Omoworare, representing Osun East Senatorial District, said his consent was not sought even as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business. He later, in a statement, dissociated himself from the vote of confidence passed in Saraki.

In an electronic mail to one of our correspondents, Omoworare said he was not contacted before his name was included in the list of 84 senators, who passed votes of confidence in Saraki. He had then moved that his name should be struck out of the motion. The motion for the lawmakers to pass vote of confidence in the Senate president was moved by an All Progressives Congress member representing Niger East Senatorial District, David Umaru, on behalf of 83 others.

The motion, reportedly endorsed by 48 Peoples Democratic Party senators and 35 APC senators, was passed by overwhelming shout of ‘ye’ by the lawmakers. It was the second confidence vote in Saraki in as many as two months. Eighty-one out of the 108 members of the Senate passed a similar vote on July 28. Umaru, while moving the motion, had noted alleged interference in the affairs of the senate “by detractors and media propaganda against senators, the senate and its leadership for selfish politicians.”

He said the Senate would not allow itself to be distracted and that it would not succumb to blackmail in the course of carrying out its constitutional responsibilities. He therefore called on innocent Nigerians, groups and political associations not to allow themselves to be used by any person or persons to intimidate or blackmail the Senate and its leadership.

But Marafa,who is the spokesperson for the Senate Unity Forum, a group opposed to the leadership of the Senate by Saraki, caused an uproar by noting that Saraki was only calling on his supporters to contribute. Marafa, who was later recognised to speak after Saraki had ruled on the motion, cited order 53 (5) of the Senate Standing Rule, which forbids the Senate from discussing any issue before the court.

The insistence of Saraki that Marafa should also read the provision of Order 53 (6), which equally forbids any senator from raising any issue upon which the Senate president had ruled upon, degenerated into an open confrontation between the two lawmakers. While Marafa argued that Saraki deliberately denied him an opportunity to talk before he ruled on the issue, the Senate president stood his ground and ruled the Zamfara senator out of order.

An angry Marafa consequently stood up and accused Saraki of giving only his loyalists the opportunity to speak on the floor and the resultant reactions from both pro- and anti – Saraki senators disrupted the deliberation on the motion on the outbreak of cholera moved by Senator Soni Ogbuoji. An APC member representing Bauchi Central, Senator Issah Missau, climbed his seat and shouted on Marafa to “shut up and sit down” and Marafa responded by threatening to beat up Missau.

At the height of the confusion in the chamber, the immediate past Senate president, David Mark, stood up and quietly walked out. In the ensuing confusion, Saraki called on the Sergeant-at-Arms to bring the proceedings to order but some of Marafa’s colleagues in the SUF, led by Senator Ahmad Lawan, sent back the Sergeant-at-Arms, saying the situation was under control.

Marafa was thereafter led out of the chamber by some senators who took him to the office of Senator Olusola Adeyeye (Osun Central) and barred him from speaking to journalists. The aggrieved senator later returned to the chamber and the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, apologised on his behalf to the Senate.

The Senate spokesperson, Senator Dino Melaye, while addressing journalists after the plenary, lamented “the unruly behaviour of Marafa” and warned that the Senate would take necessary disciplinary action against him in future if he repeated such attitude. Melaye said:

“The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, in session, apologised to Nigerians for the unbecoming attitude of Senator Marafa. That act is disgraceful, unacceptable and condemnable and that the senate regrets that.

 

“We want to assure Nigerians that this will be the last time that the Senate will condone such misbehaviour. His action contravenes Section 56 of the Standing Rule of the Senate but his misbehaviour is regrettable.

 

“The Senate will do everything within its powers to ensure that the situation does not repeat itself and where it is repeated, it would be met with stiff adherence to the rules of the Senate.”