The Senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye on Sunday described alleged attempts to reconvene the Senate before the adjourned date as “tale by the moonlight.”
Melaye also said that the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Adams Oshiomhole, should be told there was no crown in the National Assembly for anybody to wear.
Indications that the Senate might be reconvened before the October 25thadjourned date are growing by the day.
The “reconvene Senate” proponents call attention to the need to approve the pending Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) budget for the fast approaching 2019 elections.
Those opposed to the idea fear that it might be a ploy to unseat the Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki.
Melaye told reporters in Abuja that “the talk to reconvene the Senate amounts to tale by the moonlight, a serious joke.”
He noted that Senate’s rule 12 is very clear that only presiding officers can reconvene the Senate.
He said, “We adjourned properly to a date and time. In their myopic thinking they forgot the rules.
“The rules and proceedings of the last sitting were also approved. By our rules only the Senate President or the Deputy Senate President can reconvene the Senate outside the adjourned date.
“It is laughable that some people in their myopic and skewed thinking should contemplate that the Senate should be reconvened by just anybody. It will not happen. It is an exercise in futility to impress Mr. President.”
Melaye who is a frontline supporter of the Senate President added that “whatever is illegal will continue and remain illegal.”
He recalled that only a few days ago, the Court of Appeal ruled that the National Assembly has the power to set election sequence contrary to the thinking in some quarters.
On majority in the Senate, he said that the PDP has clear majority in the upper chamber.
Melaye who insisted that “APC senators are merely grandstanding” noted that APC Senators have visited the Presidential Villa four times in one week as if the Senate chamber has been moved to the Villa.”
He said that the issue of which party has majority would be settled on resumption of the Senate when seats would be allocated to members with their names and party attached.
On the call by Oshiomhole that Saraki should return APC’s crown, Melaye said the APC chairman forgot that crowns are wore in towns, villages, communities and kingdoms.
He said that “nobody wears crown at the National Assembly because the seat of the Senate President is not hereditary.”
He added that the seat of Senate President is the seat of the Senate President of Nigeria.
Nigerians, he said, should not forget that the PDP Senators gave the Senate President seat to Saraki and not APC Senators.
“Nigerians should not also forget that Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, won the seat through democratic means,” he said.
Credit: The Nation
