The Senate on Tuesday passed a vote of confidence on the leadership of the Senate President, Senator Godswill Obong Akpabio, saying the Senate remains resolute in protecting the institution of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
This was coming on the heels of the Senate resolution referring to the controversial breach of Senate Standing Rules by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan on Thursday last week to the Senate Committee On Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions.
The Spokesman of the Senate and Chairman Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Sen. Yemi Adaramodu (Ekiti South) had brought a report on news publications and reports on the incident.
Akpoti-Uduaghan sparked controversy when she accused the Senate president, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, among other things, of reallocating her seat in the Senate Chambers in order to “silence” and intimidate her while reacting to the change of her seat.
She had raised her voice in plenary to challenge the Senate president and refused all entreaties by her colleagues to explain the rational behind the decision.
Relying on Order 1(b), Adaramodu cited an interview which she had with the host of Brekete Family on Human Rights Radio and TV, Ordinary Ahmad Isah, wherein she further levelled allegations against the Senate President.
He decried the distorted reportage of what transpired and urged the Senate to act on it.
Responding to the report, Leader of the Senate, Sen. Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central) reminded his colleagues that there is a standing committee which addresses issues such as the one raised by the House Spokesman. He, therefore, urged them to refer the matter to the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions for further legislative action.
His position was carried by the Senate President who emphasised the importance of adhering to Senate rules. He noted that he had observed that Sen. Akpoti-Uduaghan has not studied her rule book, so she is unfamiliar with parliamentary procedures.
“I was a member of the 8th Senate, today I’m a member of the 10th Senate, I believe strongly that it’s only God that knows who will be a member of the 11th Senate, 12th Senate but the institution remains.
As I’m talking now, Senator Fatai Buhari knows that the rule does not allows a senator to sit anywhere, but if you need to make contribution, you must go back to your seats and this is part of maintenance of order by the presiding officer,” he said.
According to him, the first time the issue came up “our distinguished sister was not even speaking from her seat and that was when we tried to call her to order. I think part of the problem is when people come from court; court-declared senators, they miss the orientation.
Consequently, the Senate President ordered the management of the National Assembly to organize periodic orientation for senators that do not start when their calling started.
“Because I remember that this particular senator, on the day she was sworn in, raised her hand to speak. I was scared, but I had to recognize her because I was saying, we just gave her the rule book as part of what we give to you when you are sworn in.
“So I said, has she even opened the rule book to know what to say before? She made a complete deviation, I think two days later, she got a motion. There is nothing wrong with being vibrant, but there is a lot wrong when you don’t know anything about the procedure.
“Let me refer you to section 66 of our rule book. Section 66, subsection 1 says, the president of the Senate, or the chairman, may be as chairman of committee of the whole, after having called the attention of the committee to the conduct of a senator who persists in irrelevance or tedious repetition, either of his own arguments Subsection 66, subsection 1. says that the Senate President may direct him to discontinue his speech. So even while you are talking, you need to know this.
“Or in the case of sitting as chairman of the Committee of the Whole, shall order such a senator whose conduct is grossly disorderly to withdraw immediately from the Senate during the remainder of that day’s sitting.
The president of the Senate shall order such a senator to withdraw in the event that he views her conduct or his conduct to be disorderly for the remainder of that day’s sitting. And the sergeant-at-arms shall act on such orders or he may receive from the chair impetuous of this order.
“All the Senate president will do is to order that senator to stop talking. And if that senator persists, then the Senate president will now say, withdraw for the remainder of the day. Please leave the chambers.
“And then he doesn’t even need to call on the sergeant-at-arms. It is a job of the president. The sergeant-at-arms immediately enforces that order. Now, Now… I want to take us to section 65. I don’t want to go down. We’ll go through that section 65 and see all that. Yeah, exactly.
“But look at section 55 on behavior of senators in the senate, this one is a general thing we must read this when giving to us it’s like a bible in the church he said like a quran in the morning At the entry, or let’s say,
“During a sitting, that is section 55.2, all Senators shall enter or leave the Senate with decorum. It means that the sanctity of the Senate must be maintained and please go through it, you see what is expected of a Senator.
“You can’t even cross the floor during sittings. You can’t chew chewing gum during sittings. We cannot even drink water in the chamber during sitting.
“This book here gives the power to the Senate president to even suspend a senator for at least 14 legislative days without reference to any committee.
“And that means if we are sitting three times in a week, that comes to about five weeks. without reference to any committee. On that day you will notice that after we pleaded with her to speak from her seat and she refused I think our colleagues rushed to her and attempted to mute her microphone I did not mute the microphone because as at that day we didn’t have the capacity for the senate president to mute the microphone from here because of the new installation we have here.
Our colleagues went there and tried to mute the microphone to plead with her not to talk but later on i sent somebody from here to go and tell her to unmute the microphone so that she can ventilate her grievances.”
He added, “I wanted to hear why she will not move but i tried listening to one senator i found that why she did not obey the senate standing order was because she wanted to position herself where the camera can see her.”
