- By Kamil Opeyemi
Tension rose on the floor of the senate on Tuesday after the Chief Whip, Senator Ali Ndume, told the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio that many wrong things are being done in the red chamber.
Ndume had raised a point of order, citing order 54 of the Senate Rule Book to draw the attention of the Senate President to his handling of affairs in the chambers which were against the rules. He said: “Mr. President there are some things we do in this chamber that are against the rules. Sir, nobody is too big to learn.”
Before Ndume could finish his speech, the Senate President ruled him out of order.
With this, Ndume walked out of the senate and made straight to his office.
However, NPO Reports learnt that Akpabio immediately called for an executive session as one of the members was mandated to invite Ndume back to the floor for an executive session.
There are indications that senators are divided over the affairs of the upper chamber. Since Akpabio made his now controversial statement revealing that money had been sent to the accounts of the senators for them to enjoy their vacations before they went on recess weeks in August, many members were said to have been unhappy with the senate president.
Akpabio, realising that he had committed an error revealing that senators were to take home some amounts of money after few weeks of sitting, had retracted his statement saying prayers had been sent to their emails.
The statement had caused many condemnations of the lawmakers at the time.
Details later…