The decision of the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, in which he asked the immediate past minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, to take a bow, sparked uproar at the floor of the Senate on Wednesday during the ministerial screening.
Danjuma Goje from Gombe state raised a point of order against the decision to not screen Amaechi.
According to him: “Our order does not remember members of the state house of assembly. The orders of the senate do not do so; so I don’t know whether we are changing these rules,” he said.
However, in his response, the Senate President who has been accused of being a Buhari’s stooge said even though the Senate rules do not “apply to state lawmakers”, Amaechi should be extended the courtesy.
The Senate President said, “I agree totally that it is not in our rules but we can regulate ourselves even without things in the rules. So, we adopt this because we should extend this privilege to the House of Assembly. I think there is nothing wrong in that. The nominee (Amaechi) is just a beneficiary by chance. We are not doing this for him.”
Also, the Senate Minority Leader, Eyinnaya Abaribe, said senators from Rivers State wanted to ask questions but Lawan quickly rejected the move to question Amaechi.
Following remarks by various senators, Lawan gave Amaechi the option to respond or not after which the former minister declined to comment and took his leave.
