Ndume named senate leader against APC’s wish

Bukola Saraki, the senate president, has announced Ali Ndume from Borno south senatorial district as majority leader of the 8th senate.


This is against the preference of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for Ahmed Lawan – the same man that Saraki beat to the post of senate president two weeks ago.

The “rumble” continued as APC senate caucus from the north-east nominated Ndume as senate majority leader and Bala Na’ Allah (Kebbi south) as deputy majority leader by the party’s senate north-west caucus.

Ndume and Na’Allah are strong supporters of Saraki.

Also, Francis Alimikhena from Edo state was nominated by the APC senate caucus in the south-south as deputy chief whip.

Saraki read letters from the caucuses ‎nominating the lawmakers for the positions on the floor of the red chamber. The lawmakers automatically assumed the positions.

As Saraki read the letters‎, some APC senators raised objection, which caused Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president, to invoke order 63 of the senate standing orders regarding the conduct of lawmakers at the chamber while the senate president is speaking.

Ekweremadu asked the lawmakers to maintain dec‎orum while the senate president spoke.

Saraki immediately sustained the order by ruling in favour of it.

The drama continued as Kabir Marafa (Zamfara central), APC senator and strong opposer of Saraki, raised a point of order questioning the legality of the letters from the APC senate caucuses read by the senate president.

He argued that Saraki erred by reading the letters from the caucuses while ignoring an earlier letter written to him by John Oyegun, national chairman of the APC on the nomination of principal officers.

Standing on order 28 (1) which has to do with the emergence of principal officers, Marafa posited that the party was greater than any caucus; hence the senate president “betrayed a flaw”‎ by disregarding the party’s letter nominating, Ahmed Lawan (Yobe north) as senate majority leader; Olusola Adeyeye (Osun central) as chief whip.