Saraki foils attempt to oust Ekweremadu

By CHRIS EMETOH & EMMA OKERE, Abuja

Attempts by Senators elected on the platform of the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, to begin the process of nullification of the election of the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was swiftly nipped in the bud during Senate Plenary of yesterday by Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

One of the leading supporters of Ahmed Lawan, Senator Kabiru Marafa, had raised a point of order where he observed that the election of Ekweremadu was in breach of the Senate standing rules during the Wednesday plenary.

The Senator noted that the Senate rules, as passed in 2011 indicated that an election into any of the presiding offices in the red chamber shall be by division whereby Senators supporting one candidate will be on one side, while those supporting another candidate will be on the other side, and not by secret ballot when two contestants are vying for any of the positions.

Contrary to this provision, the senator said the election that brought Ekweremadu into office was done through secret ballot. The senator therefore asked Saraki to explain when the rules were amended.

But reacting to the observations, Ekweremandu said it had been the tradition of the Senate since 1999 for each Senate to come with its own rules. “There were Senate rules of 1999, 2003, 2007, that of 2011 and now 2015. The reason is quite simple, if you go to our Section 64 of the constitution, it says the Senate and the House of Representatives shall each time dissolve at the expiration of the period of four years, commencing from the day of the first sitting of the House. So the rule he (Marafa) was referring to, ended with the Senate on the 6th day.

“If he is seeking to amend the new Senate Rule, he can only amend the existing one which is the one for 2015. So, between now and 2015, this particular Senate Rule 2015 covers us and can only be amended in the manner he had suggested after 2019.That has been the process and procedures since 1999.”

The Senate President ruled Marafa out of order, citing the Senate rules that if a matter on presiding officer’s election has been decided, there can be no further inquiry into it.

Ekweremadu, though elected on the platform of minority PDP had taken advantage of the absence of members of majority APC to emerge the Deputy Senate President when the 8th National Assembly was inaugurated on 9th June.

Ekweremadu defeated Senator Ali Ndume of APC to emerge the Deputy Senate President. Most APC Senators were at the International Conference Centre to attend a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari when they heard that the election of the principal officers of the Senate had taken place.

It was believed that the Senate President, Saraki had ceded the position of the Deputy Senate President to get the support of the PDP members of the Senate when his party refused to support his bid to lead the upper chamber.

The APC had preferred Senators Lawan and George Akume for the position of the Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively.

The National Chairman of APC, John Oyegun, had said over the weekend that the resignation of Ekweremadu will help the party tackle the crisis it has fallen into as a result of the disobedience of Saraki.

Crisis has been simmering within the ruling APC and in the National Assembly since 9th June after the controversial national assembly elections. Attempts to resolve the crisis have so far not yielded any positive result.

Also, while attempting to resolve the crisis among APC senators over the sharing of offices in the Senate, Senator Gbenga Ashafa urged Saraki to read before all the senators a letter he said was written to the senate where the party’s position on the matter was made clear.

“A letter that is written by the chairman of our great party, the largest party in Africa, the APC, was sent here and by the special grace of God, we expected that that letter which has been received in your office, with due respect, would be read in order to see to the resolution of the party’s leadership tussle.

“Let me go to Order 28 (1), I read with your permission: Majority Leader of the Senate: There shall be Majority Leader of the Senate nominated by the party with the highest number of seats in the Senate.

“Deputy Majority Leader of the Senate: There shall be a Deputy Majority Leader of the Senate. A Deputy Majority Leader shall be a Senator nominated from the party, again, with the highest number of seats in the Senate.

“There shall be a Chief Whip in Senate. The Chief Whip shall be a Senator nominated from the party with the highest number of seats in the Senate.

“Again, 31(4): There shall be a Deputy Majority Whip of the Senate. He shall be a Senator nominated from the party with the highest number of seats in the Senate.

“Mr. President, by virtue of the privilege of being one of the Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and coming from our party, I believe that that letter should have been read to the hearing of all Senators here present. Perhaps that will be the solution to the leadership tussle in the Senate.”

Also, Senator Ibn Na’Allah argued that by the popular rules of interpretation of documents that has been agreed by parties, the ordinary letters and words used must be given their effective meaning.

“With your permission I am going to read sir: ‘There shall be a majority leader of the Senate. The Majority Leader shall be a Senator nominated from not by.’ What this seems to do is to debar the internally displaced side from nominating the majority leader and to confer it on the All Progressives Congress which incidentally happens to have the highest number in the 8th Senate. So with due respect, the point of order raised by my bosom friend and brother, Ashafa, even goes further to explain the raison d’être, as to why the president shall not proceed to read that letter allegedly sent to this chamber by the APC. “And therefore, we should go ahead with the functions and exercise of this Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria based on what we have accepted as majority party, that change is the platform that we will ride to move this country forward. So, I urge that this matter cannot stand.”

After listening to both Ashafa and Na’Alla, Senator Saraki stated that going by the Senate rules, he would just note what Senator Ashafa had said and leave the matter, even as he ruled Ashafa’s point out of order.