Senators pass vote of confidence on Saraki

• Buhari writes lawmakers to confirm service chiefs
• Court refuses application to stop Senate president

Senate President Bukola Saraki yesterday survived yet another attempt by the All Progressives Congress (APC) senators opposed to his election on June 9 as the presiding officer of the Red Chamber to undermine his leadership as his colleagues passed a vote of confidence on him.

This came as Saraki tactfully navigated the sensitive curves in the power game to announce the leadership of the minority party in the legislature, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) amid opposition from APC senators. Besides, he read out to the Senate a letter from President Muhammadu Buhari seeking the confirmation of the service chiefs. But the fireworks started as soon as Saraki read a letter from the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, which conveyed the decision of the PDP Caucus on the composition of principal officers from the minority party.

According to the letter, the PDP Caucus had endorsed Senator Godswill Akpabio as the minority leader; Senator Emmanuel Bwacha as deputy minority leader, Senator Philip Aduda as minority whip and Senator Abiodun Olujimi as deputy minority whip. However, Senator Kabiru Marafa (Zamfara Central) raised two points of order.

In the first point of order, Marafa, citing Order 13(1) of Senate Standing Rules 2015, observed that on June 9 when the Senate was inaugurated, the plenary ought to have held between 2pm and 6pm but rather, the Senate commenced plenary as soon as the Clerk of the National Assembly read the proclamation letter from the president. He said while the proclamation was legal and in line with the rules, every other thing, including the oaths taken on that day, were null and void. Raising the second point of order, Marafa hinged his argument on Order 3(3) of the Senate Standing Rules 2015. He said going by the relevant rules, the choice of principal officers of the Senate ought to follow the rule of ranking in which case people are chosen based on their seniority and considering their cognate experience in the legislature. But he added that the nomination of Akpabio did not follow the rule and should be declared a nullity.

Saraki noted the observations of Marafa on the sitting hours of the Senate and pledged to draw the attention of the bureaucracy of the parliament to it. He, however, frowned on what he described as an attempt by Marafa to introduce some extraneous issues into the argument on sitting hours and consequently ruled him out of order. On the second leg of the point of order, Saraki directed Ekweremadu who wrote the letter from the minority caucus to respond to the issue. Ekweremadu said while the argument of the ranking rule was cogent; the Standing Rules of the Senate did not preclude any senator from holding any leadership position.

According to him, it is entirely the business of the minority caucus to choose whom they want as their leader. Based on these explanations, Saraki said the point of order raised by Marafa was akin to “an outsider weeping more than the bereaved” and ruled him out of order. Later, Senator Samuel Anyanwu moved a motion, which he said was backed by 81 out of the 109 senators for a vote of confidence on Saraki.

New Telegraph observed that the 81 senators who backed the motion comprised 35 senators from APC and 46 from PDP. In the lead debate, Anyanwu expressed dismay at what he described as the continued harassment of the Senate, senators, the management of the National Assembly and spouses of senators by security agencies. He said in view of the sustained interference in the internal affairs of the Senate by “detractors,” there was an urgent need to pass a vote of confidence on Saraki and the Senate leadership. The motion called on the police force and all other security agencies not to allow them to be used to harass, intimidate or blackmail the Senate, senators and their spouses.

The motion was unanimously adopted by the Senate without any dissenting voice. Also yesterday, Saraki named Senator Barnabas Gemade as the Chairman of the ad hoc Committee on Ecological Disasters and Bad Roads. Gemade was the leader of the Senate Unity Forum, the group loyal to Senator Ahmed Lawan, Saraki’s main challenger for the Senate presidency. The appointment of Gemade followed the adoption of two motions on the state of disrepair of some major roads in Akwa Ibom State and landslide in parts of Isiukwuato and Arochukwu Local Government Area of Abia State. In the course of the debate, Senator George Akume (APC Benue North West) called on the Senate to support Buhari in recovering all stolen funds, which could be channelled to the reconstruction of federal roads. Similarly, Ekweremadu stressed the need for all stakeholders to help recover funds meant for the reconstruction of dilapidated roads across the country.

On the second motion sponsored by Senator Mao Ohuabunwa and 15 others, the Senate was told of a landslide, which occurred recently in Abia North Senatorial District following a downpour. In the lead debate, Ohuabunwa said many of the affected communities had been cut off from the other parts of the state while economic activities had been disrupted. Thereafter, a 12-man committee, led by Gemade, was constituted to look at the details of the two motions and come up with suggestions on how to tackle them. The committee was mandated to present its report to the Senate within two weeks.

Meanwhile, the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday refused the application seeking to stop Saraki from performing the legislative duties as the Senate president on the grounds of the use of the allegedly forged Senate Standing Rule 2015 for his June 9 election in the Senate.

Plaintiffs in the suit, Senators Abu Ibrahim, Kabiru Garba Marafa, Robert Ajayi Boroffice, Bareehu Olugbenga Ashafa and Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi had through their counsel, Mamman Mike Osuman SAN, approached the court via an ex-parte application seeking to stop Saraki from constituting the Senate Standing Committees. Joined as plaintiffs in the suit are the Senate President, the Deputy Senate President, the Clerk of the National Assembly, the Clerk of the Senate and the Senate.

Ruling on the ex-parte application, Justice Gabriel Kolawole held that there was nothing urgent in the plaintiffs’ requests. He said the Senate Standing Order 2015 being considered forged by the five plaintiffs had no substantial infraction on the 1999 Constitution to warrant court’s intervention. Justice Kolawole refused the application and adjourned till August 5.