Senate To Reshuffle Positions As It Resumes Today
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Senate To Reshuffle Positions As It Resumes Today.
By Naomisophyblog
ABUJA – The upper chamber of the National Assembly will reshuffle positions as it resumes for legislative business today.
Specifically, there will be change of guard as some members of the Senate, holding key positions, will lose them.
Also, debates in the red chamber will take different dimensions this time around as issues will be influenced by activities in the past weeks where lawmakers failed to clinch return tickets, while others dumped their political parties.
Reports from the senatorial primaries revealed that about 60 senators have lost out on return bids. This development will have effect in the upper chamber of the National Assembly.
The senators holding principal offices that defected to another party will relinquish their positions.
Recall that the Senate Majority Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, had defected from the ruling All progressives Congress (APC) to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kebbi State.
Yahaya, who participated in the APC’s Kebbi governorship primaries, was reported to have scored zero vote. This, according to some political analysts, may have prompted him to defect to the PDP. This action will make him forfeit his position as the Senate Leader.
Same thing also goes to the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who defected from PDP to All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). On resumption, Abaribe will forfeit his position as the Senate Minority Leader.
The zeal to contribute in debates will witness its lowest in the Senate, especially from the lawmakers that lost their return bid, while some, who couldn’t find their voices earlier will be the loudest because they don’t have anything to lose.
Clarifying the situation in the Senate, especially on the principal officers that defected to other political parties, the Chief Whip of the Senate and former governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, in a statement said, “During the primary elections of all political parties and for senate re-elections in particular, some senators including principal officers of the Senate fell out with their political parties and switched to other political parties.
“This switch automatically overturned the principal office position earlier held by the distinguished senators.
“This vacancy created is expected to be replaced in earnest. The vacant positions do not call for election on the floor of the Senate.
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“It, therefore, falls on the Senate caucus of the zone that produced the principal officer to select a replacement from their zone. The caucus is expected to write their party about the nomination for onward transmission to the Senate President.”
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