Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume, on Tuesday, complained that the legislative proceedings in the upper chamber since the commencement of the 10th Senate, are not in conformity with its rules and regulations
Mr Ndume, who represents Borno South on the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC), made the complaint via a point of order at the plenary.
Invoking order 54 of the Senate Standing Rules, the lawmaker called the attention of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, to the alleged unconstitutional manner he had been handling the affairs of the upper chamber since he assumed office.
Mr Akpabio was elected senate president on 13 June.
“Mr. President, there are some things we do in this chamber that are against the rules. Sir, nobody is too big to learn.
“Mr. President, the way we do things, this is the Senate and we should not shy away from learning,” Mr Ndume stated.
The senate president immediately interjected and ruled the chief whip out of order.
“As you are coming under Order 54, this is what is written there, I am sorry leader we rule you out of order,” Mr Akpabio said.
Mr Akpabio’s response made Mr Ndume to angrily leave the Senate chamber for his office.
After the chief whip stepped out of the chamber, the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, raised a point of order for the senators to go into closed door session.
Mr Akpabio subsequently directed that the Senate should go into closed door session.
Last week, Mr Ndume and Mohammed Onawo (PDP, Nasarawa), complained during plenary that the senate president was ambushing the upper chamber to hastily passed bills without following due process.
