oves by senators elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress to remove Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the Peoples Democratic Party as the Deputy President of the Senate was on Wednesday scuttled.
The President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, thwarted the move.
During plenary on Wednesday, Senator Kabiru Marafa, the spokesman of Unity Forum, the group of senators loyal to Senator Ahmad Lawan, raised a point of order where he observed that the election of Ekweremadu on June 9 as Deputy President of the Senate was in breach of the Senate standing rules.
According to Marafa, the old Senate rule on voting for the emergence of the Senate president states: "Voting shall be conducted by the clerk at-the-table using division list of the Senate with the tellers in attendance. The Clerk of the Senate shall submit result of the division to the Clerk of the National Assembly."
However, in the new Senate rule given to Senators, it was stated: "Voting by secret ballot which shall be concluded by the clerk-at-table using the list of the Senators-elect of the Senate, who shall each be given a ballot paper to cast his vote, with the proposers and seconder as tellers."
Marafa therefore asked Saraki to explain when the rules were amended.
However, Saraki ruled Marafa out of order, citing the Senate rules which states that if a matter on a presiding officers’s election had been decided, there can be no further debate on it again.
Although, Ekweremadu did not belong to the APC majority in the Senate, he capitalized on the absence of most the APC senators at their inauguration to defeat Senator Ali Ndume of APC, who contested for the seat.
Nigerians were of the opinion that Saraki ceded the position of the Deputy President of the Senate to him in order to get the support of the PDP.
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