SENATORS of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) created a scene on Wednesday, when they stopped Senator Oluremi Tinubu from speaking from the seat of the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.
Senator Tinubu had occupied Ekweremadu’s seat in his absence and remained on the seat almost throughout the sitting.
But the chamber erupted into uproar when the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, called Tinubu to second the motion in respect of the $200 million loan for Lagos State.
Senators of the PDP protested attempts by the wife of former Lagos State governor to speak from Ekweremadu’s seat, which they said was against the rules of the Senate.
As Tinubu rose to speak, the protest from the PDP wing of the chamber was overwhelming, forcing her to make some explanations.
She told her colleagues from the opposition party that she was on the seat because the microphone on her seat was faulty.
The plea was, however, unacceptable to PDP senators, who insisted that she must return to her seat.
Tinubu was quoted in the media during the life of the seventh Senate that she would emerge the Deputy Senate President in the eighth Senate.
Though an official explanation was given as to Ekweremadu’s absence, the Senate number two man, on Tuesday, escaped assassination attempt in Abuja.
Senator Tinubu eventually left Ekweremadu’s seat for her seat and demonstrated to the feuding PDP senators that her microphone was faulty.
She eventually asked a senator close to her seat for the favour to use her microphone to be able to second the motion moved by Senator Kabiru Gaya.
She was only able to speak after getting the permission to sit beside a neighbour senator to make her comments.
It was after the permission of the senator sitting beside her that she was able to address her colleagues.
She, however, returned to Ekweremadu’s seat and sat there for over one hour.
Also on Wednesday, Senator Saraki inaugurated seven standing committees of the Senate, including the Committee on Appropriation, headed by Senator Danjuma Goje; Finance, headed by Senator John Enoh; Banking, Insurance and other financial institutions, headed by Senator Rafiu Ibrahim and the committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), headed by Senator Abubakar Kyari.
Others committees inaugurated were Public Accounts, headed by Andy Uba; National Security and Intelligence, whose chairman is Senator Sha’aba Lafiagi and Communications, headed by Senator Gilbert Nnaji.
While inaugurating the committees, Saraki asked the lawmakers to hit the ground running, adding that there was every reason to reposition the economy.
Source: Tribune Newspaper
PDP senators protest as Tinubu occupies Ekweremadu’s seat
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