Saraki to lawmakers-elect: Don’t stay out of NASS on inauguration day

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has told lawmakers-elect for the 9th Assembly not to stay out of the National Assembly on the inauguration day like some senators did in 2015.

Saraki, who was speaking during the induction course for the senators and members-elect for the 9th Assembly in Abuja yesterday, said inauguration was done on the floor of the two chambers of the National Assembly and not any other place.

Saraki was speaking against the backdrop of what happened in 2015 when the then national leadership of the APC summoned a meeting at the International Conference Centre (ICC) with the then senators and members-elect on the morning of June 9, 2015, when inauguration was to take place.

However, few other APC members, including Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara, as well as some members of the PDP, stayed back on the floor. That development led to the emergence of Saraki as senate president unopposed, while Ike Ekweremadu, a PDP member, easily emerged as deputy senate president despite APC’s majority.

“If they invite you for any meeting before the inauguration, don’t go. The only place where inauguration will take place is in the National Assembly. So, don’t go, be at the National Assembly on that day,” Saraki said.

Saraki’s remarks were greeted with a wide applause from the lawmakers-elect.

While Dogara won his re-election to the house to continue representing Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa-Balewa of Bauchi State, Saraki failed in his bid to return to the Senate as he was defeated by Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe of the APC.