Standing Order Used for Saraki Election Is Fake, say Senators

Senators who served in the 7th Senate, on Saturday, disowned the 2015 edition of the Senate Standing Orders as amended under some very suspicious circumstances.

The senators who are from different political parties, said they were not aware of any amendments to the 2011 Senate Standing Orders.

The ‘forged’ orders were used in the election of Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as senate leaders.

Acting on a petition by Senator Sulaiman Hunkuyi (All Progressives Congress, Kaduna State), the police had on July 6 quizzed the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ekweremadu, and the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Salisu Maikasuwa, over an alleged forgery of the standing orders.

The petition alleged that some parts of the 2015 Senate Orders were different from the one ratified by the 6th Senate in 2010, which was used by the 7th Senate as Standing Orders 2011.

It has been observed that in the 2015 Senate orders, Rule 3 as contained on page four of the standing rule, which has to do with the election of presiding officers, is different from the 2011 Senate Order.

Rules 3(e) (I) and (ii) have been included in the 2015 document to accommodate electronic voting and secret ballot, whereas secret ballot and ballot papers were not specifically mentioned in the 2011 Standing Orders.

The Senate Order 3 (E ii) of 2011 states, “Voting shall be conducted by the Clerks-at-the Table, using the Division List of the Senate with the Tellers in attendance. The Clerk of the Senate shall submit the result of the division to the Clerk of the National Assembly.

“(iii) The Clerk shall then declare the Senator-elect who has received the greater number of votes, elected as President of the Senate.”

The same section in the 2015 Senate Order however reads, “Voting by secret ballot which shall be conducted by the Clerk-at-Table using the list of the Senators-elect of the Senate, who shall each be given a ballot paper to cast his vote with the proposers and seconder as Teller. The Clerk of the Senate shall submit the result of the voting to the Clerk of the National Assembly who shall then declare Senator-elect who has received the highest number of votes as Senate President-elect.”

The open ballot procedure was adopted by the Senate to produce the past Senate President, David Mark and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu. Senators were called, one after the other, and they openly identified with the candidate of their choice.

Apart from ‘alteration’ to the procedure for election, the order 95 of the 2011 rule on the chairmanship and membership of the Committees is also different in the 2015 version.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business in 7th Senate, Senator Ita Enang, explained that the Standing Orders that should have been used for the inauguration of the 8th Senate is the Standing Orders that was used and closed within the 7th Senate.

Enang was in the PDP when he was in the Senate, but he later defected to the APC.

He said, “I made proposal for amendments between 2011 and 2015, I laid the report on the floor, but we did not consider the report. We did not amend the Standing Orders.

“Before we left, I had approved the reprinting of the Standing Orders and the reprinting did not include inserting anything which was not in the old one. Reprinting is, simply reproduce what we have because there are no more copies,” he added.

Also commenting on the development, Senator Babafemi Ojudu (APC), who represented Ekiti Central in the 7th Senate, said, “There were no amendments at all. I spoke with Senator Ita Enang, who was the custodian of the rules and he expressed shock.

“Any amendments done to the Senate Rules which we used in the 7th Senate is criminal and perpetrators should be charged for forgery.”