There was an uproar in the Senate on Monday during the screening of Festus Keyamo SAN for appointment as Minister.
This followed a constitutional point of order and motion moved by Senator Darlington Nwokocha (LP – Abia Central) where he called for the screening of Keyamo to be stood down over his past attitude towards the National Assembly when he was Minister.
Nwokocha explained that Keyamo had refused to appear before committees of the National Assembly to explain how N52billion allocated for 774,000 Public Works Programme of the Federal Government was utilised and how the beneficiaries were selected when he was Minister of State for Labour and Employment.
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (APGA – Abia South) seconded the motion.
When Senate President Godswill Akpabio put the question to voice vote, majority of the senators shouted “yea” while a few others answered “nay” with very high pitch.
Following the development, most Senators got up, left their seats and started speaking all at the same time.
Akpabio said he was going to put the question again, but could not proceed due to rowdiness in chambers as all Senators seemed to be talking at the same time.
When the commotion appeared unstoppable, Akpabio got up from his seat and addressed the session.
He invoked a rule of the Senate which says when the Senate President is on his feet, all Senators must immediately take their seats and stop talking.
Following this invocation, the Senators sat and the session became quite calm.
He thereafter called on the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele to direct on what the Senate should do next.
Bamidele upon rising, moved a motion that the Senate should resolve into an executive session to deliberate on the issue.
The motion was seconded by the Minority Leader, Simon Mwadkwon.
