Drama As Senators Fight Over Sitting Arrangement At Renovated Chamber

Senators resumed plenary after forty days of Easter and Sallah break. There was a rowdy session and three senators were seen engaging in a heated argument. This argument happened in the newly renovated Hallowed Chamber. The Senators were quarreling because of sitting arrangements. In the beginning, the excitement of holding plenary proceedings in the renovated hallowed chamber first enveloped the session. Trouble started when Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President started reading names of Senators who marked their birthdays during the forty days recess.

The trouble began when Senator Sahabi Alhaji Ya’u of the APC, representing Zamfara North, angrily stood up from the seat allocated to him. He made a complaint to the Leader, whose name is Senator Micheal Opeyemi Bamidele, of the APC, representing Ekiti Central. Another Senator in the person of Danjuma Goje, of the APC, representing Gombe Central, was also not happy with the seats assigned to him and he also made a complaint to Opeyemi Bamidele. This renovation is coming 19 months after the closure of the Hallowed Chamber. The rehabilitation works are almost completed now.

Senators sit according to ranking according to the standing rules of the upper legislative chamber. The complaint of Alhaji Ya’u’s to the Leader started in a hushed tone and this aggravated shouting between the two and consequently sparked reactions from other Senators. This eventually led to a rowdy session. Senator Ya’u during the heated session which lasted for about 30 minutes, angrily pointed his finger at the Leader. He complained that the Seat allocated to him at the far right of the chamber was not befitting to him because he is a ranking Senator who held the principal position of Deputy Minority Whip of the Senate during the 9th National Assembly.

Senator Danjuma Goje of the APC representing Gombe Central, also complained to the leader that in the sitting arrangement, the ranking Senators were not well positioned. The Senate President, Akpabio to calm nerves, called on the Leader and aggrieved Senators surrounding him to approach the Chair which they did and eventually paved the way for Akpabio to read his welcome address. An emergency executive session was called for by the leader after Akpabio’s welcome address apparently to diffuse the bottled anger among Senators over the sitting arrangement.