Politics
Stop Running Uninformed Commentaries On Senate – Akpabio Warns Armchair Critics

The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio has strongly advised individuals who are not well grounded in the rules of the Senate to desist from running uninformed commentaries on the Upper Chamber.
Akpabio made the remarks against the backdrop of the recent decision of the Senate to suspend the Kogi Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Oduaghan for flouting the Senate rules.
The Senate President spoke on Friday while receiving a delegation of the Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities Youth Leaders Forum which paid him a solidarity visit in Abuja.
The Senate President wondered why people who had no idea of the rules of procedure in parliament were always the ones to run uninformed commentaries on Television on matters they knew nothing about.
Akpabio said the Senate action on Senator Natasha Akpoti-Oduaghan was a unanimous decision and wondered why people were not bothered to know why there was not any desenting voice in the Senate on the matter.
“You should try to go and know the fact before you start running commentaries on television. So we will advise members of the public to desist from running commentaries on things that they do not know, misquoting the rules of the senate,” Akpabio said.
Responding to an earlier comment by the leader of the delegation, Jonathan Lokpobiri Snr, that the first time Niger Delta was made a Senate President was 46 years ago, Akpabio said the people of Niger Delta would not toy with this position of Senate President no matter the mischief others within the opposition rank and file attempted to do.
Akpabio said “the Senate President of today is not representing himself alone. He is representing a people who are very crucial to the economic life wire of this country.
“So when people gang up and conspire, I hear voices from Adamawa shouting, I hear voices from Kwara State shouting, I hear some young people from the southwest being used for something they don’t know, they don’t know the rules of the Senate, you cant be a herbalist and start quoting the Bible, you won’t know what to quote.
“If you have not studied the Bible or you have nothing to do with Christianity, you cannot claim to know the bible more than the Pope. In the same vein, if you are not an Imam, you cannot begin to quote the Quoran.
“But you see people who are not well informed, sitting down just like they do, like football commentators and then they will say Ronaldo should have come from the left to score and that if you were Messi, you would have kicked from the centre. Then you do commentaries on the Television.
“But things that have to do with the hallowed chamber of the National Assembly, you cannot begin to quote what you have never seen. It is only when you are elected to be a senator or a member of the House of Representatives, after your inauguration, the first thing that will be given to you is the Red Book.
“That Red Book contains the Standing Orders that will maintain discipline and decorum and also show you step by step approach to lawmaking which you must study and follow. In the House of Representatives, they will give you a Green Book to signify the Green Chamber.
“But when people are not well informed about the procedures and begin to debate about the provisions they don’t know, sometimes it worries me.
“So your concern about the current situation is well understood. We have our internal mechanism of settling issues and this issue, we have settled and we will continue to settle.”
Jonathan Lokpobiri, President of Ijaw Youth Council, who led the delegation had earlier expressed concern about the development at the Senate and assured Akpabio that the people of the Niger Delta are fully behind him.
Lokpobiri also sought the intervention of the Senate President on the looming crisis in Rivers State warning that it could snowball into the entire Niger Delta if not nipped in the bud.
Lokpobiri raised their concerns over the Coastal road project, Maritime University in Oron which is yet to take off and the possibility of extending the Warri – Itakpe rail line to Abuja.
On the Rivers State crisis, Akpabio told the delegation that, he and other senators from the Niger Delta would take up their request and see how they could bring peace to Rivers State particularly, and any other sub national needing similar intervention.
Akpabio said their concerns regarding the Coastal Road project had already been addressed by the President but further assured them that all other concerns which they have raised would be addressed.
Politics
IPU cannot consider Natasha’s petition – Jimoh Ibrahim

Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, Chairman of the Senate Inter-parliamentary Committee, remarked that the purported petition from the suspended Senator Natasha is “dead on arrival.”
He emphasised that Nigeria, rather than Senator Natasha, is the member of the IPU.
A petition can only be lodged against another member state by a member state.
This implies that the IPU cannot consider petitions from individuals who are not members.
The suspended Senator Natasha is not a member of the IPU, but Nigeria is!
Additionally, the suspended Senator cannot represent the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“I served as the interim president of the IPU in Geneva in 2023, and I am familiar with how the IPU operates after presiding over its proceedings.
Furthermore, as Chairman of the Inter- parliamentary Committee in the Nigerian Senate, I did not approve or authorise the suspended Senator Natasha to attend the IPU on behalf of Nigeria to the Senate President.”
Politics
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Senate in session in the chamber
Politics
No Individual Bigger Than PDP, Says Diri

By David Owei ,Bayelsa
Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was bigger than any individual and that its internal challenges would be fixed once the members resolve to tackle them.
Speaking to journalists at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja on Thursday after the inauguration of the party’s South-South zonal caretaker committee led by Elder Emma Ogidi, the Bayelsa Governor said the political will to confront those fomenting trouble in the party resided with the members and not solely on the leadership.
Diri, who is also Chairman of the South-South Governors Forum, stated that for the party to be competitive as the oldest in the country, it must look inwards and fix its internal issues.
He said: “For me, we have to look inwards before accusing those outside our party. We have to first fix our internal issues.
“It is very easy to point accusing fingers. But the PDP has to sit back and tackle its internal challenges. That is only when we can stand to compete with others.
“I want the PDP to be competitive with other political parties. We are the oldest political party in Nigeria. So we have no reason to be accusing outsiders.”
On whether the party’s leadership had the political will to discipline those fomenting trouble, Governor Diri averred that such will resided with the members.
“We are all members of the party. The moment we all resolve that we need to fix our party, there cannot be any one person that is bigger than the party.”
He stressed that the newly inaugurated zonal caretaker committee had the mandate of the National Working Committee to look into every issue affecting the party in the South-South.
The Bayelsa helmsman expressed the hope that the event was a step forward for the party.
“In our zone, which is the only area in the country you have four governors of the party, we have all resolved and are together on this. You can see the deputy governor of Delta State, who represented the governor. I have also received messages from the governors of Akwa Ibom and Rivers. It shows that we are together and what we need to do is to show leadership and work with the zonal committee so that our zone will again become safe and strong for the PDP.”
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