Senate denies rift between Akpabio, Bamidele, says exchange not a sign of division
The senate has denied claims that senate President Godswill Akpabio and Opeyemi Bamidele, the senate leader, got into a fight during a recent executive session.
Yemi Adaramodu, the chairman of the senate committee on media and public affairs, clarified the development in a statement issued on Sunday, described the claim as baseless and misleading.
Adaramodu insisted that the reports misrepresented standard legislative processes as signs of internal discord.
“Our attention has been drawn to diverse media reports claiming that the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio and Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, clashed during an executive session recently convened to deliberate whether the Senate should proceed on annual recess,” the statement reads.
“The reports do not contain any iota of truth. In entirety, they misconstrue time-tested practices and traditions in the parliament 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 spokesperson said heated discussion is still a feature of parliamentary democracy and does not reflect a lack of unity among members.
“This entails robust debates to which members discuss and dissect every initiative before the Senate purely in the interest of over 230 million Nigerians.”
Adaramodu said the deliberations, whether in plenary or committee sessions, should not be mistaken for personal altercations or signs of division within the senate leadership.
“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,” he concluded.
