Akpabio, Ahmad Lawan Clash Over Senate Sitting Time

The Senate on Thursday went into an emergency closed-door session sequel to a heated disagreement over sitting time between a former Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan (Yobe North) and the incumbent Senate President, Godswill Akpabio during plenary.

According to the Senate rules, plenary sitting is supposed to commence by 10am and rounds off by 2pm. But the rule has been jettisoned as senators come to the chamber as late as 11am and sometimes extend the 2pm closing time to enable them exhaust items on the Order Paper.

On Thursday, the Senate sought to formally amend its rules to shift the official sitting time from 10am to 11am, with Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central) moving the motion.

But Lawan opposed to the motion saying the proposed changing of time to synchronize with the House of Representatives was not convincing or “scientific” enough.

He said, “The explanation that the change was to enable the Senate to synchronize its sitting time with that of the House of Representatives is not saleable to senators.”

The former Senate President argued that starting plenary at 11am would extend sessions till 3 pm, a time when committees should be sitting.

But responding, Akpabio told Lawan that the 11am practice was inherited from Lawan’s 9th Senate, a claim Lawan refuted.

He said, “No, that is not correct!”

Akpabio then went ahead to explain that starting at 11am did not necessarily mean that the sessions would last till 3pm.

However, while Akpabio and Lawan continued the argument, Senator Bamidele intervened, explaining that senators often have multiple engagements, including oversight duties which sometimes keep them working late into the night, making a 10 am resumption challenging.

The disagreements led to an emergency closed-door session called by Akpabio to resolve the issue.

After the emergency closed-door session, the Senate resumed and passed the motion that plenary starts by 11 am and ends by 3pm.

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