28th July, 2015
Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu openly rubbished the Senate Standing Rules to impose former governor of Akwa Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio as the Minority Leader of the 8th Assembly.
Saraki in the process of imposing Akpabio shut down a member of his party, Senator Kabir Marafa, a member of the Unity Forum of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has he attempted to point out the illegality of Akpabio’s choice.
Marafa called the attention of Saraki to the fact that as a first time senator, Akpabio was not qualified to occupy the position of the Senate minority leader, going by the Standing Orders of the Senate.
Marafa cited Order 13 (2) of the 2015 Senate Standing Rules and argued that a ranking senator was supposed to have occupied the position given to Akpabio.
But in apparent disregard for the Standing Rules Saraki told Marafa to “stop crying more than the bereaved”. He ruled out Marafa’s objection saying the PDP senators were not complaining and as such, urged Marafa not to.
He was however overruled by the Senate President who said the constitution of Nigeria allows any senator to hold any position.
Similarly, Ekweramadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also opposed Marafa. He argued that it is the business of PDP to determine who is appointed as the minority leader.
The Deputy Senate President also said “the rule only stipulates that ranking senators should be considered first before other non-ranking senators and that if a ranking senator cannot take the position for any reason, then the next level of ranking senators can be considered,” he said.
Two members of PDP, had filed an ex parte application challenging the party’s choice of Akpabio as senate minority leader.
According to them, the possible emergence of Akpabio as senate minority leader would breach the senate standing orders which bar first-term senators from holding such a position.
The court however threw out their application.