* Saraki tackles Ekweremadu over letter as lawmakers shelve budget debate

 

…PDP lauds confirmation of service chiefs

 

 From TAIWO AMODU AND ADETUTU FOLASADE-KOYI, AbujaTension enveloped the Senate chamber yesterday over the refusal of the leadership to read a notification of change of political party signed by 11 members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) defecting to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).

Chairman of the Committee on Environment and Ecology, Senator Bukola Saraki, submitted the letter to Senate President David Mark at Wednesday’s plenary. The understanding in the camp of the defecting senators was that the letter would be read at yesterday’s plenary, before commencement of legislative business. It was not done as Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu presided over the session. Mark was away to Jigawa State to commission the Ministry of Land, Housing, Urban Development and Regional Planning Complex.

 

Shortly before debate on the general principles of the 2014 budget, Saraki raised Order 15 of the Senate Standing Orders (2011, as amended), which deal with privileges, drew Ekweremadu’s attention to the notification of defection letter pending before the Senate. He asked why the letter was not read.

 

The order reads: “Any senator may rise at any time to speak upon a matter of privilege suddenly arising, and he shall be prepared to move, without notice, a motion declaring that a contempt or breach of privilege has been committed, or referring the matter to the Committee on Ethics and Privileges, but if the matter is raised in the Committee of the Whole Senate, the Chairman shall leave the chair to report progress.”

 

The following exchange of words ensued between Ekweremadu and Saraki:

 

Saraki: “I raise this motion on a notice by which a letter was communicated yesterday to your chair on notification of the change of political party by myself and 10 other senators from the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress (APC). So, I felt that it was necessary for me to bring to your attention that the letter has not yet been read.

 

Ekweremadu: The Senate President has travelled and before he travelled, he told me you had a discussion with him and agreed to have a meeting on Monday. So, that was what he told me on the subject.

 

Saraki: That is not the case, sir. I submitted the letter as of yesterday and he indicated the intention that he would like to meet with the senators. But the two issues, submitting the letter and his request for the meeting, do not seem that the meeting was subject to the bringing of the letter. So, I felt that the two are two separate issues.

 

Ekweremadu: Unfortunately, this is my own understanding of your dialogue with him and he is not here. So, I believe that we would stand down any issue relating to that until he comes back.”

 

The Deputy Senate President beckoned on Senator George Thompson Sekibo to continue with his contribution to the budget debate. This drew the ire of some members who started speaking out loud and although Saraki did not push any further, Alhaji Danjuma Goje, one of the defecting senators, stood up and maintained that the letter be read.

 

Goje reiterated that it was their “right and privilege that the letter be read without further delay.” His position attracted a mild drama on the floor as senators from both aisles openly engaged in war of words. Goje pressed on: “Yesterday, myself, Senator Danjuma Goje, representing Gombe Central and 10 others, presented a letter to the Senate President, formally informing him, to inform the chamber that we have defected from the PDP to the APC.

 

Ekweremadu reminded Goje that he came late to the chamber, saying, “first of all, I think you came late. We have discussed this matter earlier before you arrived and we have taken a decision on this. Senator Mark did not give me any letter to read”.

 

The Minority Leader, Senator George Akume, took up the matter. He said: “Mr President, I speak on behalf of those of us who have sworn to protect the constitution of this country.

 

“Mr President, you are not new to this system. We are all senators of the Federal Republic. This country operates a bicameral legislature. This country has only one constitution that guides the country. Therefore, what is constitutional in the House of Representatives cannot be unconstitutional in the Senate,” he said.

 

Again, Ekweremadu declined to entertain the motion. “Please, I have to stop you. You have to wait. I don’t see what the problem is. Senator  Saraki raised a Point  of Order that he sent a letter containing the names of senators who want to defect.

 

The APC was not pacified. Senator Anthony Adeniyi raised a constitutional point of order when he reiterated that, “in the absence of the Senate President, the Deputy Senate President shall perform all the duties and functions of the Senate President.”

 

At this point, there was uproar in the chamber when Adeniyi insisted that “the Senate President told this chamber that he is aware of the letter”. Taking it up from there, Senator Oluremi Tinubu insisted though on Order 14 (b), that “whenever a matter of privilege arises, it shall be taken up immediately.”

 

Meanwhile, the PDP leadership yesterday hailed the Senate which confirmed service chiefs in spite of what it described as the “wicked plot by APC to stall” the process.

 

On January 21, Mr President wrote the Senate, requesting for confirmation of four nominees including Air Marshal Alex Badeh, Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General Kenneth Minimah, Chief of Army Staff, Rear Admiral Usman Jibril, Chief of Naval Staff as well as Air Vice Marshal Adesola Amosun, Chief of Air Staff.

 

Recall that the APC had last week at the end of its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting threatened to ask its members to frustrate passage of the budget and screening of new service chiefs over what it claimed was the partisanship of the Rivers State Police  Command.

 

PDP National Publicity Secretary,  Olisa Metuh, in a statement yesterday, said, “in completely ignoring the APC, the lawmakers have shown that they are indeed statesmen who are alive to their constitutional responsibilities for which they were elected by Nigerians”.

 

In a related development, rather than end the debate on the N4.642 trillion 2014 Appropriation Bill, Ekweremadu suspended the exercise. It will be concluded on Tuesday, February 4.

 

Source: Sun