Saraki And APC Again: Makes Ndume Senate Leader

The APC is being dragged in the mud
by Senator Bukola Saraki and his gang. Three out
of the four principal officers of the
Senate assumed office on Thursday
after the Senate President, Saraki, read
their nomination letters from their
respective zonal caucuses in the red
chamber, against APC’s wish again.
Saraki at the resumed sitting of the
federal lawmakers, refused to read
the letter sent to him by APC leaders
but read out the letters addressed to
him by the APC senate caucuses
from the North-East, North-West
and South-South.
He said the North-East caucus had
endorsed and nominated Senator Ali
Ndume as the Majority Leader,
while the North-West caucus
adopted Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah
as Deputy Majority Leader.
The South-South caucus according to
their own letter, adopted France
Alimikhena as the deputy whip.
He subsequently asked the Sergeant–
at– Arms to lead the three principal
officers to their respective seats and
assume office immediately.
Saraki was, however, silent on the
Chief Whip because members of the
South-West caucus which should
produce a representative, did not
write any letter.
It was learnt that the South-West
senators refused to write any letter
because they claimed that the
party’s decision as contained in its
letter, was sufficient.
Attempts by the senator
representing Zamfara Central,
Kabiru Marafa, to make the Senate
President read the letter from the
National Chairman of the party,
Chief John Odigie-Oyegun,
containing lists of the principal
officers, was again frustrated by
Saraki.
Marafa had cited Senate Standing
Order 28 (1) and Constitution point
of order Section 65, (1E), to drive
home his arguments.
He said, “According to the
provision, there should be a
majority leader of the Senate who
should be a senator nominated from
the party with the highest number
of senators.
“This point of order was raised
yesterday (Wednesday) and another
colleague raised another point of
order distinguishing between the
word, from and by, which was used
there. That is why I am joining it
with order 65 (1d) of the
constitution.
“It says subject to the provisions of
section 66 of the constitution. A
person shall be qualified for election
as a member of the Senate if he or
she is a member of a political party
and sponsored by the political party.
“Mr. President, there is a
communication from the APC which
is the party with the majority reps in
the Senate. However, for reasons
best known to you Mr. President,
you declined to read it on the floor
of the Senate when your attention
was drawn to the communication
from the party.
“The constitution provision just
cited, clearly put the party ahead of
any other caucus from anywhere.
Therefore, if the communication
from the party, can so be regarded, I
suggest that you, Mr. President
cannot read any communication
from any caucus because there is no
caucus that is bigger than the
political party.”
Saraki ruled Marafa out of order,
stressing that he had concluded on
the issue at Wednesday’s sitting.