Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, representing Abia South senatorial district, has said that he would have handled the suspension of Senator Abdul Ningi differently if he were the presiding officer of the Senate.
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Recall that the Senate on Tuesday, March 12, suspended Senator Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central) for three months after alleging the 2024 budget was padded with N3 trillion.
However, Abaribe while fielding questions on Arise Television’s Morning Show programme on Wednesday, March 13, said he was part of those who moved around and tried to moderate the tense atmosphere in the Senate on Tuesday, but the view of the Senate prevailed despite his and others’ intervention as elders in the hallowed chamber.
He said: “Well, we have rules. Our rule says in section 66 that if you bring the Senate to disrepute – I think there are several aspects of that section 66 in our rules, which you can discipline a senator.
“But there’s also another part of the argument that says that under section, I think 2C (14) or so, where a constituency must be represented.
“I am an elder in the Senate. And I was part of those that went around and said ‘Please can we moderate this’. But the view of the Senate prevailed.
“If I was, of course, the presiding officer, probably we would have run it differently.
“At a point at which Senator Olamilekan had made that clarification should have been where we should have ended the matter. But of course, the matter nosedived. It is what it is.
“I think we can just move on. The rule must be adhered to. Any system without rules will just devolve into chaos. That’s all.”
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