BREAKING: Fresh Battle Erupts as Senate Amends Standing Orders, Bars First-Term Senators
- Godswill Akpabio-led Senate has barred first-term senators from contesting for the Senate and deputy senate president
- This is as the Red Chamber changed his standing orders of rule 3(2) (1-3) during plenary on Thursday
- Opeyemi Bamidele, the senate leader, moved the motion to change the standing order of the Senate
FCT, Abuja - The Senate has stopped first-term senators from contesting for the position of the Senate President and Deputy Senate President following the amendment of its standing orders on Tuesday, October 3.
This came after some months that Senator Abdulaziz Yari, a first-term member of the Red Chamber, who earlier served as a member of the House of Representatives, ran against Senate President Godswill Akpabio for the position of the Senate President, The Nation reported.
By amending the standing orders of the Upper Chamber, first-term senators have now been exempted from being qualified or eligible in the contest for the presiding officers of the Senate.
How Senate stops first term senators from contesting for Senate President
The motion to amend rule 3(2) (1-3) of the Senate Standing Orders was moved by Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central, APC), the Senate leader.
Opeyemi titled the motion:
“Amendment of the Standing Orders of the Senate pursuant to Order 109 of the Senate Standing Orders, 2022 (As Amended).”
As amended, rule 3 of the Senate Standing Orders now reads that any senator interested in contesting for the two top principal offices of the Senate President and Deputy Senate President must have been in the house for at least one term.
It then further amended its rules to create nine more standing committees. Presently, the Red Chamber has 74 standing committees.
Source: Legit.ng