Senate in Closed-Door Meeting Following Ndume’s Exit

In a turn of events during a Senate plenary session, Senate President Godswill Akpabio requested an urgent closed-door meeting, leading to an unexpected break in proceedings. The decision followed a ruling that Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume was out of order for raising a point of order regarding alleged errors made during the session.

The dispute began when Senator Ndume raised concerns about a motion brought by Senator Summaila Kawu for debate on the reopening of the Nigerian-Niger border. The issue, as raised by Ndume, was that the motion did not state its title correctly. He invoked order 51 of the Senate standing rules, requesting the Senate President to allow corrections to any errors noticed during the session.

However, Akpabio rejected the request, stating that issues raised and ruled on cannot be revisited. This led to a disagreement between Senators Ndume and Akpabio, with the former seeking to address what he perceived as an error.

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Despite attempts by Senator Sunday Karimi to sustain Ndume’s argument through another point of order, he was ruled out of order as well. In response, Deputy President of the Senate, Jibrin Barau, referred to order 16, which requires a substantive motion to be moved by any Senator for correction or review of previous decisions.

Akpabio sustained Barau’s point of order, which further aggravated Ndume. He raised another point of order, order 54, to seek correction of the perceived error. However, before he could present his argument, the Senate President once again ruled him out of order.

Frustrated by these rulings, Ndume left the chamber in an evident display of displeasure. In response to the situation, the Senate promptly entered into a closed-door session, which was ongoing at the time of this report. The reasons and outcomes of this closed-door meeting remain to be seen.

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