Motion on Nigeria-Niger Border Closure Causes Uproar in Senate

•Akpabio calls emergency closed session, Ndume walks out

•Sumaila: Closure increasing crimes

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

Senate President Godswill Akpabio, yesterday, suddenly called for an emergency closed session during plenary the moment the Chief Whip, Senator Ali Ndume, angrily staged a walk out.

Ndume, who is representing Borno South Senatorial District on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had raised a point of order on alleged errors committed and not corrected by Akpabio.

The error referred to by Ndume was a motion moved by Senator Summaila Kawu (NNPP Kano South) for debate on the need for re-open the  Nigeria-Niger Border without reading the title of his motion.

Ndume, who rose through order 51 of the Senate standing rules, requested the Senate President to allow for correction of any error made or observed in plenary.

“This is the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guided by laws, rules and procedures. If in the course of proceedings at any session, errors are observed, they must be corrected before forging ahead with such proceeding. Nobody is above learning. The Senate President should note that,” he said.

Senator Sunday Karimi (APC Kogi West) made attempts to sustain Ndume’s line of argument through another point of order but was  also ruled out of order by the Senate President.

The Deputy President of the Senate, Jibrin Barau, quickly rose to read order 16, which required a substantive motion to be moved by any Senator for correction or review of earlier decision taken.

The decision by Akpabio to sustain Barau’s point of order, made Ndume to raise order 54 to correct the perceived error.

Akpabio demanded the standing order book from the Clerk to the Senate and read it out. He then told Ndume that the order did not support his line of argument.

The Senate President subsequently ruled him out of order without being allowed to defend his argument.

Not satisfied with Akpabio’s ruling  Ndume packed his documents and stormed out of the chamber, and went straight to his office.

The Chief Whip was just settling down in his office, when he received a call from a colleague to return to the chamber for an executive session.

The executive session lasted about one and half hours.

Sumaila, who moved the motion on the border closure, stated that the development had increased crime rate in the states that bordered Niger Republic and had led to massive job lost.

He claimed that the closure of the border by the member states of the Economic Community of West African States ran contrary to the provisions of the constitution of Nigeria that guaranteed the security and welfare of the people,which he said should be the paramount and primary purpose of government.

He urged the federal government to reconsider reopening of the border between Nigeria and Niger to allow for free movement of trade and business of the two countries as commercial activities had drastically gone down in these areas.

Stressing that both Nigeria and Niger had signed bilateral trade agreement to allow free movement, he said the borders ran contrary and violated the agreement, maintaining also that Nigerians should not be allowed to suffer such untold hardship for whatever reasons.

Akpabio, however, noted that since the issue had to do with security, the motion would be stepped down to allow for further consultations.