Lawan, Ekweremadu clash over number of PDP senators

Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, on Thursday disagreed with the Majority Leader, Senator  Ahmed Lawan, over the composition of the membership of the upper legislative chamber.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the disagreement played out on the floor of the Senate during plenary presided over by Ekweremadu.

Raising a point of order, Lawan (APC-Yobe) had claimed that there were 56 APC senators as against PDP’s 46 in the upper chamber.

But Ekweremadu (PDP-Enugu) countered him, saying there was no record to back his claim.

Lawan’s point of order was in reaction to two reports on pages 5 and 7 of Daily Trust newspaper of Wednesday which he dismissed as erroneous.

He said, “On page 5 of Daily Trust of Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2018, it is reported that the APC senators are 57 and PDP senators, 58.

“For the record, Mr President, APC senators are 56 and PDP senators are 46.

“On page 7, the Daily Trust reported that when a question was put for the confirmation of Festus Keyamo for National Deposit Insurance Commission governing board, the nays had it, but that you said the ayes had it.

“For the record, the first time you put the question, there was no clear winner, so you put the question again, and Mr President, your judgment was right because the ayes had it.

“I needed to put the record straight so that nobody in the future is misguided on what happened in the Senate,” he said.

Lawan was referring to the confirmation of Keyamo and five others as members of the Board of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation by the Senate on Wednesday.

The majority leader had proceeded to present the first item on the Order Paper when Ekweremadu interrupted him to respond to the issues he raised.

Ekweremadu said the newspaper report on Keyamo’s confirmation votes should not be an issue since they were in compliance with the Senate Rules, and no senator complained about it.

“Then on the issue of the number, I don’t think there is any particular statistics in respect of how many APC or PDP members are in the Senate,” he said.

(NAN)