By George Mgbeleke <\/p>\n
The Senate Wednesday at plenary ran into exchange of words over amendment of its rules on Tuesday which didn’t go down well with some Senators , particularly , Senator Adams Oshiomhole ( Edo North ) . <\/p>\n
Oshiomhole’s persistent attempts to raise point of Order over the issue at the beginning of plenary Wednesday during adoption of votes and proceedings of Tuesday’s session , made him to incur the wrath of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio who threatened to walk him out of the chambers if he refused to comport himself with Senate’s rules and procedures .<\/p>\n
Recall that the Red Chamber had on Tuesday after a three\u2011hour closed\u2011door session, revised Orders 4 and 5 of its standing Rules which restricted Senators with prior experience in the 9th previous Senate from contesting elective positions in the 11th Senate.<\/p>\n
The move is widely seen as a block against potential 11th Senate contenders such as Hope Uzodimma, Kabiru Marafa, and Adams Oshiomhole, who were not members of the two preceding assemblies.<\/p>\n
Under the amended Order 4, nominations for Presiding Officers must now follow a defined ranking system and be strictly adhered to. <\/p>\n
The order of ranking of its former President of the Senate, former Deputy President of the Senate, former Principal Officers of the Senate, senators who have served at least one four\u2011year term, former members of the House of Representatives, and first\u2011time senators, only if none of the above are available <\/p>\n
The Senate went further in Order 5 by adding a new requirement: \u201cAny Senator shall not be eligible to contest for any Principal Office of the Senate unless he has served as a Senator for at least two consecutive terms immediately preceding nomination.\u201d <\/p>\n
That provision bars senators who were not in the 9th and 10th Senates from contesting for Presiding or Principal Offices in the 11th Senate.<\/p>\n
Presiding Officers refer to the President and Deputy President of the Senate while the Principal Officers include the Senate Leader, Deputy Senate Leader, Chief Whip, Deputy Whip, Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader, Minority Whip, and Deputy Minority Whip.<\/p>\n
Trouble started when Akpabio during the adoption of votes and proceedings of the Tuesday session , got to number 194 , 195 and 196 , containing the amended rules of the Senate , particularly those on eligibility for position of Senate President and Deputy Senate President , Oshiomhole shouted point of order to prevent their adoptions. <\/p>\n
Apparently aware of Oshiomhole ‘s plan, Akpabio ignored him by quickly reminding Senators of procedures of plenary which according to him as stated in order 38, contains 8 different steps from opening prayers to matters of urgent public importance where point of order can be raised .<\/p>\n
He consequently ruled Oshiomhole out of Order that was not in the first place , granted . <\/p>\n
In giving life to Oshiomhole’s point of order , Senator Francis Ezenwa ( Imo East ) , informed the President of the Senate that the Order Oshiomhole was raising , was point of privilege and not point of order but Akpabio countered him by saying it falls on step 8 and not step 2 of procedure of proceedings which has to do with adoption of votes and proceedings. <\/p>\n
Not satisfied with the explanations, unrelenting Oshiomhole shouted point of order again which made the Senate Whip, Senator Tahir Monguno ( Kano North ) , admonished him to be well guided by the Senate rules and procedures.<\/p>\n
Angered by Oshiomhole’s persistent shouts of point of order Akpabio read order 20 of the Senate rules.<\/p>\n
He said : \u201cLet me be clear to you my colleagues , distinguished Senators . Many people may not have seen this order, which is why I am reading it out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Senate President is tasked with maintaining order during debates and giving rulings on points of constitutional order when they are raised.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe also has a casting vote in the event of a tie, but does not vote in any other circumstance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMost importantly, he has the authority to interpret the rules\u2014this is clearly stated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, dear Senators we should not come into this chamber, especially on matters as serious as contested elections, without a proper understanding of the rules.<\/p>\n
” Therefore Senator Oshiomhole, let me state it finally that I can use this rule to take you out of the chamber if you not ready to comport with the Senate rules and procedures ”<\/p>\n
The contentious amendment Senate made on its rule is in order 5 which states : Any Senator shall not be eligible to contest for any Principal Office of the Senate unless he has served as a Senator for at least two consecutive terms immediately proceeding nomination ” , which means that Senators who were not in the 9th and current 10th Senate , are not eligible to vie for presiding officers ‘ positions in the 11th Senate .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By George Mgbeleke The Senate Wednesday at plenary ran into exchange of words over amendment of its rules on Tuesday which didn’t go down well with some Senators , particularly , Senator Adams Oshiomhole ( Edo North ) . Oshiomhole’s persistent attempts to raise point of Order over the issue at the beginning of plenary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13390,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13389\/revisions\/13390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}