the Senate, Bukola Saraki, in spite of the disagreement over Rotimi
Amaechi's confirmation as minister on Thursday.
The senators, who are members of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said
that they would also continue to support Saraki as he faced his trial
at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
One of them, Gershom Bassey, said that there was no rift between the
senators of the PDP and their All Progressives Congress (APC)
counterparts in the red chamber, adding that the PDP senators still
had confident in Saraki's leadership.
Bassey said that the senators may disagree on issues, but that such
disagreements were healthy for legislation.
"We have had two votes of confidence on him and they stand. He has the
confidence of the senate and there is absolutely no problem.
"In spite of the disagreement between the APC and PDP senators,
nothing has changed. In democracy, people must have different points
of view and we must express those points of view.
"The senate is a vibrant senate that has a lot of vibrant debates; the
Senate is not a football team that we all have to play in the same
direction,'' he said.
According to him, in the senate, we can play in different directions
and still score the goal; I think the more debate there is in the
senate, the more vibrant it is.
"We must continue to discus different points of view; it is important
that we have different points of view, but that does not mean we are
enemies,'' Bassey said.
He revealed that the major disagreement was not the petition against
Amaechi, but the move by APC senators to flout the rules of the senate
and confirm the nominee without considering the report on him.
He said that PDP senators did not see any reason for the rush to
confirm Amaechi, adding that PDP would never be part of any move to
disobey the rules of the senate in favour of anyone.
On his part, Sen. George Sekibo (PDP Rivers East) said that PDP
members at the upper chamber walked out to protest the refusal of the
senate to discuss a committee's report on Amaechi, insisting that they
would not go back on the decision.
Sekibo, who submitted the petition against Amaechi to the senate
shortly after the former governor was nominated by President Muhammadu
Buhari for ministerial appointment, said that PDP senators had made
their position known.
According to him, it is now left for Nigerians to know what to do.
On Saraki's assets declaration trial, he maintained that PDP senators
were solidly behind him.
"The Code of Conduct case is against an individual and not APC. We
gave him our support in the spirit of esprit de corps.
"As far as senators are concerned, what happened yesterday has passed;
we are not working for political parties, but for the entire nation.
"When the time comes to express the wish of your people, you do that
and that is what we did yesterday.
"We didn't get it, so we let it go so that the country can move
forward; we cannot hold the country to ransom," he said.
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