April 30, (THEWILL)- The Senate, on Tuesday, witnessed a rowdy session after some Senators engaged in a heated argument over sitting arrangement in the newly renovated Senate Chamber of the National Assembly.
The argument began just as Senate President Godswill Akpabio was reading his welcome address following the five-week Easter and Sallah break, including the forced extension due to renovation works by the federal lawmakers.
Senator Danjuma Goje, the lawmaker representing Gombe Central and the Senator representing Zamfara North, Sahabi Ya’u, had expressed displeasure over the seats assigned to them while complaining to the Majority Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele.
Senator Ya’u (APC, Zamfara North) had angrily stood up from the seat allocated to him to complain to Senator Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central). His complaints to Bamidele degenerated into a shouting match between the two of them and consequently sparked reactions and escalated into a rowdy session, which lasted for about 30 minutes.
Senator Ya’u was seen pointing his finger at the Senate Leader, complaining bitterly that the new seat allocated to him at the far right corner of the chamber was not befitting of him, being a ranking Senator who once held a principal position of Deputy Minority Whip of the Senate during the 9th National Assembly.
The verbal war between the Senate Leader and Senator Ya’u festered further when Senator Danjuma Goje (APC, Gombe Central) joined the fray. Goje also complained to Bamidele that ranking Senators were not well positioned in the new sitting arrangement.
However, Akpabio called on the Senate Leader and the aggrieved Senators surrounding him to approach him, which they did and eventually paved the way for the Senate President to read his welcome address after normalcy was restored.
After Akpabio’s welcome address, an emergency closed-door session was called for by the Senate Leader, apparently to diffuse the bottled anger among the Senators over the sitting arrangement.
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