The Senate has dismissed reports suggesting a clash between the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, at a recent executive session in the red chamber.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, made the clarification in a statement yesterday. He described the claims as baseless and misleading.
Adaramodu insisted that the reports misrepresented standard legislative processes as signs of internal discord, the statement read, “Our attention has been drawn to diverse media reports claiming that President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio and Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, clashed during an executive session recently convened to deliberate whether the Senate should proceed on annual recess.
“The reports do not contain any iota of truth. In entirety, they misconstrue time-tested practices and traditions in the parliament worldwide, where members, regardless of their political leanings, leverage the instruments of parliamentary debates, questions or interpellations to discuss every initiative decisively and eclectically before approval or authorisation.”
Adaramodu stressed that vigorous debate remains a hallmark of parliamentary democracy and does not mean there is disunity among members.
“The Senate, as our country’s highest law-making institution, is not different in any way. Like other parliaments, every bill, motion and proposal is always subjected to intense scrutiny in our Chamber almost on a daily basis.
“This entails robust debates to which members discuss and dissect every initiative before the Senate purely in the interest of over 230 million Nigerians,’’ he said.
He emphasised that deliberations, whether in plenary or committee sessions, should not be misinterpreted as personal altercations or signs of division within the Senate leadership.
“Whether in the chamber or committee room, debates on policy issues should not be misconstrued as altercations among members, neither do they suggest any crack in the rank of the leadership,” he said.
