Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has told the All Progressives Congress, APC, that the National Assembly is not the party’s secretariat.
Senator Ekweremadu made the comment through his Special Adviser on Media, Uche Anichukwu.
The aide was interviewed during a RayPower Radio morning programme, tagged: “Political Platform”, monitored by DAILY POST Wednesday morning.
Reacting to alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Rule by APC members, Anichukwu reminded the ruling party that the seat his principal was occupying was not meant for any political party or individual but Nigerians.
His words: “Every Senate or House has its Standing Rule/Order, as every Standing Rule/Order normally that has a life span of four years. So, if you go to the Office of the Clerk to the National Assembly now, you are likely to find Standing Rules/Orders of 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and the current 2015.”
“Going by Section 50 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, that Office doesn’t belong to anybody or party. It belongs to Nigerians. That is why APC lawmakers became Speakers in Plateau and Benue State Assemblies last June even when the APC was in minority.
“By the way, are some people trying to tell Nigerians that if the PDP had won majority in the National Assembly, which is an independent arm of government, and head both chambers, then the President Buhari Administration would cease to function?
“Just as I said in a statement a few days ago, we will not be intimidated and will do everything democratically possible to protect the independence of the National Assembly”.
Anichukwu insisted that at the time the said Senate Standing Rule/Order 2015 was made, Ekweremadu had ceased being the Deputy Senate President and so could not have influenced or doctored the document.
“From the point of the valedictory session of the 7th Senate on 4th June, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Distinguished Senator David Mark and the rest of other members of the 7th Senate ceased to be senators until the 9th of June, when the 8th Senate was inaugurated; and as usually done, the new senators received new Standing Rule/Order 2015.
“The making of that 2015 edition of the Senate Rule/Order is the business of the bureaucracy of the National Assembly. What the 8th Senate can do, which its predecessors have sometimes done is to amend as suitable and the process of the amendment is spelt out in the that document”.
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