Some members of the House of Representatives on Sunday asked their colleagues to stop interfering with the crisis in the Senate involving Senator Kabiru Marafa and his colleagues.
The House members noted that the Senate and the House were independent arms of the National Assembly, each having its internal rules of engagement.
They said this implied that none of the arms should meddle in the internal affairs of the other, since they could individually resolve any internal crisis without seeking outside help.
Marafa had lately accused the leadership of the Senate, under Senator Bukola Saraki, of using the distortions in the 2016 budget as an opportunity to settle political scores.
But last week, a group of House members, including the Chairman, House Committee on Basic Education, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, cautioned Marafa to be mindful of his choice of words.
The members had claimed that Marafa was disparaging the institution of the legislature with his utterances.
However, on Sunday, 15 members of the House replied the Mohammed group, saying that the latter should steer clear of the crisis in the Senate.
Meanwhile, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, has said he would not make any comment on the reason the upper chamber failed to deliberate on the Ethics Committee’s report on the spokesperson for the Senate Unity Forum.
The SUF spokesperson, Senator Marafa, was accused on the floor of the Senate penultimate Tuesday by two senators of granting press interview to allegedly mislead the public about the National Assembly, thereby bringing the image of his colleagues to disrepute.
Ruling on oral petition by Marafa’s accusers, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, asked the Ethics Committee to investigate their claim and report back to the plenary within a week.
When contacted on Sunday to know why the report of the panel that investigated Marafa was not considered, Senate spokesperson, Abdullahi, said he would not make any comment on the issue.
He described the issue involving the probe of Marafa as internal affairs of the Senate.
Abdullahi said himself and other members of the red chamber were currently busy and working hard to make available to Nigerians, a budget that everyone would be proud of.
He said, “There is nothing to make comment on, because we are very busy at the moment working on the budget which l think should be of more importance to an average Nigerian.”

www.punchng.com/reps-warn-members-against-interfering-in-senate-marafas-row/