Senate denies rift between Akpabio, Bamidele

…describes media reports as baseless

The Senate has dismissed media reports of a faceoff between the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, and the Senate Leader, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, as speculative and unfounded.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Yemi Adaramodu, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.

Checks revealed that the Red Chamber was locked in executive sessions for two days—Wednesday and Thursday—before it proceeded on its annual recess.

Investigations revealed that Senator Bamidele had raised observations on the need to follow normative processes before the Parliament could adjourn, fuelling speculation of a faceoff between him and Senator Akpabio.

Adaramodu, in his statement, clarified that what was reported as a verbal altercation was actually normal “parliamentary debates, questions or interpellations to discuss every initiative decisively and eclectically before approval or authorisation.”

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His statement reads in part: “Our attention has been drawn to diverse media reports claiming that President of the Senate, His Excellency Godswill Akpabio, GCON, and Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, CON, clashed during an executive session recently convened to deliberate whether the Senate should proceed on annual recess.

“The reports do not contain any iota of truth. In entirety, they misconstrue time-tested practices and traditions in parliaments worldwide, where members, regardless of their political leanings, leverage the instruments of parliamentary debates, questions or interpellations to discuss every initiative decisively and eclectically before approval or authorisation.

“The Senate, as our country’s highest law-making institution, is not different in any way. Like other parliaments, every bill, motion, and proposal is always subjected to intense scrutiny in our Chamber almost on a daily basis. This entails robust debates during which members discuss and dissect every initiative before the Senate purely in the interest of over 230 million Nigerians.

“Whether in the chamber or committee room, debates on policy issues should not be misconstrued as altercations among members, neither do they suggest any crack in the rank of the leadership.”

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