Senate in Rowdy Session over Sitting Arrangement

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja 

There was a rowdy session at the Senate on Tuesday when the senator representing Gombe Central, Danjuma Goje; his Zamfara North colleague, Sahabi Yau, and the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele engaged in a hot argument over sitting arrangements

The Senate, which resumed plenary since it went on recess on March 20, is using its renovated chamber after more than two years since work began on it.

The standing rules of the upper legislative chamber, provides that senators sit according to ranking.

The Easter and Sallah recess was postponed to accommodate the completion of the renovation of both chambers of the National Assembly.

The altercations occurred while the Senate President Godswill Akpabio was  reading his welcome address.

It was learnt that Goje and Yau, sitting on the second row on the right side of the aisle, did not like the seats allocated to them by the senate committee on services.

The Chairman of the Senate Services, Sunday Karimi, who is representing Kogi West, is in charge of seats allocation in the chamber.

Goje and Yau told the Senate Leader that deserved to be assigned seats on the front row on the extreme right – opposite the seats of the majority leader and the deputy Senate President.

The argument degenerated into further comments among the senators and the Senator representing Kano South,  Kawu Sumaila, called for a “point of order”, but he was ignored.

Thereafter, Bamidele moved a motion for a closed-session, which the Senate President endorsed.

Details later……