The Unity Forum on Tuesday said that the composition of the 65 Senate Standing Committees by the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, is against the Senate Standing Orders 2015, as amended.
Saraki had last week announced the composition of 65 Senate Standing Committees against the 57 Standing Committees stipulated in Senate’s Standing Orders.
The spokesman of the Unity Forum, Senator Kabiru Marafa, who came through a Point of Order at plenary on Tuesday, said the composition of the Committee is against fairness, equity and justice.
Making the stand of the forum known on the floor, Senator Marafa said Saraki violated the country’s constitution and the Standing Orders of the Senate in the constitution of the 65 committees.
Marafa, who laced his observations with quotations from the 1999 Constitution and the Senate Standing Orders, sought for the review of the committees.
According to him, the composition of Standing Committees did not follow of the stipulated rules of the Senate and that the issue of seniority in the Senate’s rules was not followed.
Citing an instance, Marafa said in Oyo State, the two ranking lawmakers were denied the chairmanship of any committee while the first timer from the state was appointed the chairman of a standing Committee.
He also added the issue of Kwara and Enugu States, which produced the Senate president and the Deputy Senate President, were allocated four chairmanship slots.
However, Saraki was tactical in his handling of issue and merely told Maraca that the observations were noted.
Speaking with newsmen after the plenary, Marafa said the Selection Committee is defective, adding that it is only the Senate that has the power to approve the Standing Committee.
He said the composition showed tyranny and urged Nigerians to charge Saraki for contempt.
Also briefing newsmen, the Senate spokesman, Senator Abdulahi Sabi, explained that there is no illegality in the composition of the Standing Committees, adding that due process was followed in the composition.
Sabi said Marafa’s complaints cannot be separated from his dissatisfaction with the emergence of Saraki as Senate president.
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