A mild drama erupted in the Senate on Tuesday when the President of the Red Chamber, Senator Godswill Akpabio and the Chief Whip, Senator Ali Ndume clashed over a motion on the need to reopen the Nigeria-Benin Republic border.
Ndume had raised a point of order to draw the attention of the Senate President Godswill Akpabio to his handling of affairs in the chambers which were against the rules.
He said, “Mr. President there are some things we do in this chamber that are against the rules. Sir, nobody is too big to learn….”
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But the Senate President quickly intercepted him by saying having ruled on issues raised, it cannot be revisited and consequently ruled Senator Ndume out of order.
Efforts by Senator Sunday Karimi (APC Kogi West) to sustain Ndume’s line of argument through another Point of Order was also swiftly ruled out of order by the Senate President.
In an effort to restore harmony, the Deputy Senate President, Senator Jibrin Barau quickly rose to read Order 16 which requires a substantive motion to be moved by any Senator for correction or review of earlier decisions taken.
Sustenance of Barau’s Point of Order by Akpabio infuriated Ndume, who raised another Order (54) to seek for correction of the perceived error.
The Senate President ruled him out of order again without being allowed to make full presentation of his argument.
Angered by Akpabio’s decision, Ndume packed his documents and furiously stormed out of the chamber.
Apparently perplexed by the scenario, Senators hurriedly went into a closed-door session which lasted for hours and affected the items on the Order Paper for the day
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