The new Senate majority leader, Ahmed Lawan, has declared that the recent peace moves by the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) have restored the supremacy of the party over individual aspirations.Senator Lawan made this observation when he led other principal officers of the Senate on a courtesy call on the APC leadership at the partys national secretariat in Abuja, yesterday.This follows the apparent end of nearly two years of frosty relationship between the leadership of the Senate and that of the party.LEADERSHIP recalls that the two had fallen out after the party leaderships preferred candidates for the Senate leadership were upstaged by the Senate President Bukola Saraki-led group. And to worsen the matter, an opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senator, Ike Ekweremadu, was allowed to emerge deputy Senate president, much to the dismay of the APC.Lawan had been the choice of a section of the party for the Senate presidency in 2015 but on the day the Senate convened for its first plenary, Saraki, with the support of the minority PDP caucus, got himself elected and took over the Senate leadership.Lawan was not even around to contest the seat, as he was held up at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, where most of the APC senators had gone for a purported meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari that never held. They were still waiting for the president when they learned that Saraki and others had taken over the leadership positions.Sarakis emergence created divisions in the APC. The crisis was accentuated when he refused to adopt Lawan and some other nominees of the party sent by the party leadership for various positions.However, recent peace moves that resulted in the replacement of Senator Ali Ndume with Senator Lawan as Senate leader seemed to have unified the party once again. Lawan was originally the partys choice for Senate president.Speaking during his visit to the party secretariat in Abuja, yesterday, the new Senate leader noted that there is now no reason for the party at all levels not to perform since all the factions that existed before now in the APC Senate caucus had all agreed to work together.Meanwhile, APC senators have stated that they have no knowledge of any plot to remove the deputy Senate president, Sen. Ekweremadu, saying the stories are mere speculations.They made this clarification when the Senate leader led them on a visit to the national headquarters of the party yesterday.Lawan said: Let me start by thanking the Almighty God for witnessing this occasion. Tuesday last week was a historic day in the Senate. Our party, after the setbacks and the little crisis that we had with the emergence of the leadership of the Senate, our party decided that the remaining principal offices should be given to certain senators in order to have a united Senate, especially the APC caucus.Tuesday last week marked the day our colleagues from the APC Senate caucus decided to do what the party wanted in recognition of the partys supremacy, not only to restore stability to the Senate caucus but to the highest level of the party and, of course, stability in our polity and government.Mr Chairman, at some point, we were divided but right now I am the Senate leader and we no longer have the Like Minds or Unity Group; we have become united APC caucus.Lawan asserted that this restoration of peace among the partys ranks was the perfect opportunity for them to work together to deliver good governance to the people who voted them into power.We believe that the trio of the National Assembly, the presidency and the party will synergise to ensure that we are always working at the same page. The party is a platform for both the president and National Assembly members and, therefore, we should take this opportunity, work on it, solidify it and ensure that the time we have lost because of some crisis is recovered, he said, adding that the party did not have the luxury of wasting more time.According to him, Nigerians are eager to see what happens in the next few months now that the APC has a united National Assembly, the presidency and the party leadership.We should be able to perform to the expectations of Nigerians within the limits of the economy, he added.In his response, the APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, explained that while the ouster of the former Senate leader, Ali Ndume, was not because of any wrongdoing, it was a necessary act.It is important to mention that the former Senate leader was not removed as a result of any misdeed on his part or as a result of loss of confidence of his colleagues, but as a result of a necessary act that had to be done to reunite the Senate.We appreciate the service that he rendered to the Senate and the sacrifice that he has made is necessary for the National Assembly, the party and for the nation to move ahead, Odigie-Oyegun said.Why Ekweremadu Cant Be Given Ndume TreatmentThe Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu cannot be removed from office with the current numeric strength of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Senators in the Senate, LEADERSHIP investigation has revealed.LEADERSHIP reports that the first majority leader of the 8th Senate, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, was last Tuesday removed from office as the chairman of the APC Caucus in the Red Chamber by a simple majority of 39 Senators out of 63 APC Senators.Since then, there have been calls on Ekweremadu, who was elected into the Senate on the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but strangely re-elected as deputy Senate president in the APC-dominated Senate on Tuesday, June 9, 2015, to defect to the ruling party in order to save his job.The calls were hinged on the fact that the former Senate leader, Ndume, was consumed by the reconciliatory and realignment moves in the APC and since Ekweremadu is a beneficiary of the partys disunity, there were moves to remove him the Ndume way, save he defects from PDP to APC.LEADERSHIP recalls that barely 24 hours after the coup de grce executed against Ndume at plenary last week, two APC SenatorsSenator Kabiru Marafa (APC, Zamfara) and Senator Abdullahi Adamu (APC, Nasarawa) openly called on Ekweremadu, who was presiding over the session in the absence of the Senate president Bukola Saraki, to join the APC before it was too late.Both senators had seized the opportunity of moving and seconding a motion respectively for the adoption of the previous days votes and proceedings to make their calls. But ruling on the motion, Ikweremadu said: The votes and proceedings is hereby adopted with all other issues duly removed.LEADERSHIPs findings have however revealed that the calls were mere personal opinions of the proponents as there is no way the deputy Senate president can be removed by a simple majority except by the consent of two-thirds majority members of the Senate.It is pertinent to note that while principal officers of either chambers of the National Assembly can be removed from their positions by a simple majority, presiding officers of either the Senate or House of Representatives cant be removed same way other than as prescribed by the Constitution.Section 50 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) states asfollows: (1) There shall be:-(a) a President and a Deputy President of the Senate, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves; and(b) a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.(2) The President or Deputy President of the Senate or the Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives shall vacate his office (a) If he ceases to be a member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives, as the case may be, otherwise than by reason of a dissolution of the Senate or the House of Representatives; or(b) When the House of which he was a member first sits after any dissolution of that House; or(c) If he is removed from office by a resolution of the Senate or of the House of Representatives, as the case may be, by the votes of not less than two-thirdsmajority of the members of that House.A credible and highly placed source in the Senate also told LEADERSHIP last night that the rumours making the round about the office of the deputy Senate president in the aftermath of Ndumes removal were mere wishful thinking as Saraki and Ekweremadu currently enjoy a harmonious working relationship.Let me even tell you that there is nothing of such. Both of them (Saraki and Ekweremadu) for the first time defied a tradition today (on Monday) by travelling on the same plane to Minna in Niger State to condole the people over the death of former governor Kure. That is enough to show that all these talks are mere wishful thinking, the source added.
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