Senate president, Bukola Saraki, has reportedly blocked attempts by his colleagues to challenge the emergence of senator Ike Ekweremadu of the Peoples Democratic Party.
This action was taken by Saraki during the plenary session of Wednesday, June 24, after senator Kabiru Marafa, one of the leading supporters of Ahmed Lawan had raised a point of order where he observed that the election of Ekweremadu was in breach of the senate’s standing rules.
Marafa noted that senate rules, as passed in 2011 indicates 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, as 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.
But the senator is arguing that the election that brought Ekweremadu into office was contrary to the provisions of the rules and demanded an explanation from the president on when the rules were amended.
Saraki swiftly ruled him out of order, while also citing the senate rules that if a matter on presiding officer’s election has been decided, there can be no further inquiry into it.
PM News reports revealed that although Ekweremadu was elected on the platform of minority PDP, he took advantage of the absence of members of the majority All Progressives Congress to emerge as the deputy senate president when the 8th National Assembly was inaugurated on June 9.
The senate president, it was suggested, ceded the position of the deputy senate president to the opposition in a bid to garner the total support of the PDP members of the Senate when his party refused to support his bid to lead the upper chamber.
Saraki reportedly rejected attempts by an APC senator to read letters sent by some leaders of the party on the floor of the house, as he quickly ruled it out of order.
