A high court in Abuja had about 2 months ago ordered the Senate president Bukola Saraki not to declare the seat of the former minority leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio vacant. Akpabio stated that if his seat is to be declared vacant, so should those of his colleagues who defected from APC to PDP.
Akpabio when asked if he was perturbed as a result of reports that his seat could be declared vacant as a result of his defection from “a party without rancour” said “Even as you are looking at me, do I look perturbed? I have not heard the report. Because the reason why I think that is a rumour is that there is, at the moment, no division in the APC.
“The APC is one family. If you hear about R-APC that was not really a political party that was not a division, has since been consumed in what they call Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP).
“So, there is no division. And so, any defection from APC to PDP, we will like to declare those seats vacant.”
There was chaos and confusion at the Senate today when Saraki refused to allow Akpabio contribute to a point of order. This he said he wouldn’t do except Akpabio returns back to his seat.
“Senator… eh… former Minority Leader, you know you can’t speak from there. You can’t. Go to your seat, when you get to your seat, I’ll recognize you,” he said.
Senate leader, Ahmad Lawan standing up to defend Akpabio said “If he decides to sit there, let him. There is no microphone there. Let us not take the panadol for his headache. Let me advise, that even though we have only six, seven months to go, let’s do what is right,” he said.
At this point, most of the Senators were seen standing up from their seats to confront their colleagues from the opposition parties.