The Senate on Wednesday, September 27, 2017 mandated its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to probe an alleged attempt by some people to pitch southern lawmakers against their northern counterparts.
This followed a Point of Order by the chairman Senate Committee on Power, Enyinnaya Abaribe, on the floor of the senate.
He alleged that there were plans to cause disaffection among the lawmakers.
Mr. Abaribe, who represents Abia South, referred to a newspapers publication on an alleged query given to him by the Senate over Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) at their closed-door meeting on Tuesday, September 26, 2017.
He urged the upper chamber to probe the paper on its source of such misleading information.
He said, “This morning Mr. President, I was surprised to find ‘IPOB: senators query Abaribe over Kanu’s bail’.
“Mr. President, we have always said on this floor that anything the presiding officer says at the closed-door session is the sum total of our discussion.
“I remember yesterday that three points were made as a result of our discussion, which was Nigeria’s unity and effort by this senate to make sure we help in bringing peace to this country.
“The headline that purports to say that this is what happened in our closed-door session which of course did not happen does not in any way advance the course of peace in this country.
“My constituents have been worried, they have called me and they have been asking me.
“I have told them that it is not true and I will bring it up on the floor and ask the entire senate to please help us to ask the newspaper to produce whoever gave them this erroneous and misleading information.”
Mr. Abaribe said it was the tradition of the senate not to query any of its members, which showed the failure of the report adding that each senator knew what was discuss during the session.
The senator, therefore urged the senate to look at the attempt at driving a wedge between the south-east senators and the northern senators.
“Some people are bent on making sure that there is no peace but I know that God will not allow them,’’ he said.
In his remarks, the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, urged the media to be responsible.
He said, “We expect our press to show high level of responsibility with the way they do their work.
“Publishing rumours will be the highest form of irresponsibility.’’
He, thereafter, referred the matter to the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.
