AKPABIO EXPLAINS HOW NATASA DISOBEYED SENATE RULES
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Senate President Godswill Akpabio on Tuesday opened up on how Senator Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan breached the rules of the Senate last Thursday.
Akpabio who spoke during plenary, attributed Natasha’s conduct to lack of proper grasp of the Senate guiding rules
Akpabio said: “The Senate leader has finally arrived at the motion before us that we should refer the entirety of the saga to our Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions committee to revert back to us.
“But let me just say this for the record. I’m sitting today as Senate president tomorrow I may not be here. I was a member of the 8th Senate. Today I’m a member of the 10th Senate. I believe strongly it’s only God that knows who will be a member of the 11th Senate or 12th Senate. The institution remains.
“As I’m talking now, Senator Buhari knows that the rule allows a senator to sit anywhere, but if you need to make contribution, you must go back to your seat and part of maintenance of order from the presiding officer, is that where a particular senator perambulates too much around the Senate, you recognize him to speak.
“Most times, that senator, I wouldn’t mention the name, will have to run from here straight to his seat because he knows the rule that he has to speak from his seat.
“The issue came up here. Our distinguished sister was not even speaking from her seat and that was when we tried to call her to order. I think part of the problem is when people come from courts, court-declared senators, they miss the orientation.
“The management of the National Assembly is hereby ordered to organize periodic orientation, particularly for senators who are mid-streamers, who can mid-stream and did not start when their colleagues started.
“Because I remembered that this particular senator, on the day she was sworn in, raised her hand to speak. I was scared, but I had to recognize her because I was saying, you just gave her the rule book.
“But I thought what we give to you when you have sworn in is the standing order of the Senate. So I said, she didn’t even open the rule book to know what she’s going to say.
But she made the contribution on that day. I think two days later she brought a motion. There is nothing wrong in being vibrant, but there is a lot wrong when you don’t know anything about the procedure. You can’t be a Reverend Father and go and start a church service with Communion. You must lay foundation.
“So let me refer you to section 66 subsection one of our rule book. It says ‘the president of the Senate or the chairman, maybe while is he sitting as chairman of committee of the whole, after having called the attention of the Senate or of the committee to the conduct of a senator who persists in irrelevance or tedious repetition, either of his own arguments or of the arguments used by other senators in debate, may direct him to discontinue his speech.’
“So even when you are talking, the Senate president has a right to ask you to discontinue your speech and then Section 66(2) says, ‘if such a senator refuses to resume his or her seat…’ This is the first time the rule book is even referring to her…’The President of the Senate, or in the case of sitting as Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, shall order such a Senator, whose conduct is grossly disorderly, to withdraw immediately from the Senate during the remainder of that day’s sitting’ and the Sergeant-At-Arms shall act on such orders, or he may receive from the Chair in pursuance of this order.’
“All the Senate President will do is to order that senator to stop talking and if that senator persists, then the senate president will now say, withdraw for the remainder of the day.
“Please leave the chambers. He doesn’t even need to call on the sergeant-at-arms. It is a job of the sergeant at arms to immediately enforce that order.
“Now, I want to take us to section 55: Behavior of senators in the senate. This one is a general thing. We must read this when it is given to us. It’s like a Bible in the church. It’s like a Koran in the mosque.
“Section 55(2) says: ‘During a sitting, all senators shall enter or leave the Senate with decorum.’ It means that the sanctity of the Senate must be maintained.
“You can’t even cross the floor during sittings. You can’t chew gum during sittings. You can’t make phone calls during sittings. You cannot even drink water in the chamber during sittings.
“At the point of putting a question during sitting, no senator can step out of the chamber. When a senator is speaking, no senator can pass his front or pass between chairs. When the President of the Senate is putting a question, that is section 55(7).
“No senator may walk out of or cross the floor of the Senate when the question is being put, you are expected to be seated on your seat.
“Even to converse or discuss amongst yourselves, when a senator is speaking, it has to be in very low tone, where you don’t disturb the chamber.
“Then if you go to section 6, subsection 1, ‘the president of the Senate shall allocate a seat to each senator.
Subsection two says ‘a Senator may only speak from the seat allocated to him, provided that the President of the Senate may change that allocation from time to time.’
“It’s not me that made and made these rules. So even without giving reason of defection, decampment or anything, the Senate president can observe, as they are calling me in the social media headmaster, the headmaster can observe that two senators are too close and they are always discussing and he says, in order to ensure the sanctity and decorum of the Senate, senator Abdulfatai Buhari move to the next seat, You are too close to Sahabi Yau and it must be obeyed. If you want to be a senator, please learn that this is a guiding principle. All the things that they are saying outside, this book here, gives the power to the Senate president to even suspend a senator for at least 14 legislative days, without reference to any committee and that means if we are sitting three times in a week, that comes about five weeks without reference to any committee and that stands.
“But on that day, you will notice that after we pleaded with her to speak from her seat, and she refused, I think our colleagues rushed to her and attempted to mute her microphone. I did not mute the microphone because as of that day we didn’t have the capacity for the Senate President to mute the microphone from here because of the new installation we have here.
“Our colleagues went there and tried to mute the microphone to plead with her not to talk. But later on I sent somebody from here to go and tell them to unmute the microphone so that she can ventilate her grievances.
“I wanted to hear why she would not move. But when I listened to what Senator Adaramodu brought, I found out that the reason why she did not obey the Senate Standing Order was because she wanted to position herself where the camera can see her.
“And so the standing orders of the Senate will not matter unless she sits where the cameras can see her. But I want to let you know that here is an instrument placed before the Senate president that the moment you press that you want to talk, it gives a signal here. So whether I see you directly by raising your hand or not, I will see you on the instrument before me.
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