Senator Faults Maikasuwa
Over NASS Elections
Adesuwa Tsan and Jonathan Nda-Isaiah
— Jun 16, 2015 6:30 am | 1 Comment
A member of the Unity Forum, Senator Kabiru
Marafa, has accused the clerk of the National
Assembly (CNA) of fraud for his actions
during the June 9 Senate elections that
produced Senator Bukola Saraki as president
of the 8th Senate.
According to him, the CNA amended the
Senate Standing Order without the knowledge
of the senators, thereby changing the Standing
Rule of the Senate – that for any presiding
officer to emerge, he must score two-thirds
votes of the number of the senators, and not
one-third as the CNA stated before the said
election.
Marafa, who spoke in Abuja yesterday, alleged
that the amended Senate Standing Order used
in the June 9 inauguration of presiding officers
was not known to him and that he was not
aware of any amendment of the Standing Rule
by the 7th Senate, and whoever must have
amended the rules without the knowledge of
the senators must be prosecuted.
He said, “Senate Amended Rule 2015 is a
fraud; the person who did it has to be brought
to book. We are not fighting Saraki; we are not
against Saraki; what we are asking is, who
changed the process? Who changed our
Standing Rule? The public was misinformed
that there was quorum. According to our rule,
the quorum for electing the presiding officers
is two-thirds.”
Senator Marafa said that some of the
questions that the CNA should answer include:
“What is the quorum for electing presiding
officers? Who changed our rules and why did
he change them?
“Our rule provides for division; why did he
amend our rules and why was he in a hurry?
Why couldn’t he wait for the senators to form
a quorum before he started the election of the
presiding officers? For the election of the
presiding officers to be valid, two-thirds must
be present.”
The senator recalled that during the induction
of the 8th Senate held at the International
Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja, the then
deputy Senate president, Senator Ike
Ekweremadu, who was re-elected, in a paper
he delivered, stated that to elect the Senate
president and the deputy Senate president,
each of them must get 55 votes of the
members.
He argued that for the deputy Senate president
to have been elected with 54 votes meant that
he was not validly elected.
“I expect Ekweremadu to step aside. As an
accomplished lawyer, a parliamentarian and
deputy Senate president for eight years, he
knows our Standing Rule, he knows the law,”
Mararfa stated, adding his position was not
about Senator Saraki or Senator Ekweremadu;
rather, it was about the rule of law.
“Saraki has been my leader, I have no quarrel
with him. I will be happy for him (as president
of Senate), but what we are asking is, what
happened on the 9th of June – was it
constitutional or not?” he asked.

Source; leadership.ng/news/440812/senator-faults-maikasuwa-over-nass-elections

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