Uproar in Senate as faulty mic forces principal officers to relocate

Uproar enveloped the Senate chamber yesterday when faulty microphones forced the Senate leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, and minority leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, to change their seats.

The two principal officers were forced to move to other seats to carry out their legislative functions amidst murmur by senators in attendance.

Abdullahi realised that his microphone was not functioning when he was about to move a motion for the Senate to observe a minute’s silence and suspend plenary in honour of a House of Representatives member, Jafaru Illiyasu Auna, who died in Abuja on Sunday.

Efforts by the Sergeant-at-Arms and other National Assembly staff to fix the microphone failed.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan, had to intervene and approve that the Senate Leader should take any seat and use its microphone.

“Leader, you are the leader of the Senate, you can speak from anywhere,” Lawan said.

Coincidentally, the microphone on the seat of the Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, also developed same technical problem.

Our correspondent reports that Abaribe’s move to use the microphone on Senator Barau Jibrin’s seat to second the motion stirred uproar from senators of the ruling APC, who tried to stop him.

Abaribe jokingly said while seconding the motion that “I am reluctantly using Barau’s microphone to second this motion which is telling us that the renovation for this chamber should be on the top burner.”

This came after the intervention of the Senate leader who said, “Today is not our usual day so if the minority leader is in an unusual seat, it is because the occasion demands it.”