FULL DETAILS | How Senate Rules Were FORGED for Saraki & Ekweremadu’s Elections

According to this exclusive report by Premium Times, the deputy clerk of the National Assembly, Benedict Efeturi had indeed confirmed to police investigators that the senate’s standing orders used for the 2015 elections of Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as senate president and deputy, were different from the original version which should have been in use at the time.

Details of police investigation shows that
Mr. Efeturi made the disclosure to the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department of the Nigerian Police, which investigated allegations that the rules were forged to help Messrs. Saraki and Ekweremadu to their posts.

He however said the alteration, which some senators denounced as illegal as lawmakers were not informed about, was based on the directive of the former senate leadership, then led by David Mark.

He said that the amendment was done “by convention and practice” and not by “procedure”, claiming that the previous versions of the rules were amended by the same method.

But Senator Ita Enang, who was in charge of Rules and Business said no such thing happened. The rules of the entire Senate can not be amended by just the word of mouth of David Mark.

Messrs. Saraki, Ekweremadu, Efeturi and a former clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa, have been charged with forgery. They were arraigned on Monday before a High Court in Abuja.

The senate president and his deputy accuse President Muhammadu Buhari of bias, and argue that the case is a violation of the independence of the legislature.

In his statement to the police, Mr. Efeturi, who is also the Clerk of the Senate, had said the leadership of the seventh Senate under Mark ordered the 2015 Standing Rules be amended.

According to the report, he “stated that the leadership of the National Assembly of the 7th Senate ordered the 2015 Standing Rules as amended by their convention and practice. (He stated) that the Senate Standing Orders 2003, 2007 and 2011 followed the same procedure as that of 2015. He emphasized that in the Parliament, amendment of the Standing Orders is by practice not necessarily by procedure.

“He further stated that during the ruling of the Senate President on the 24th of June 2015, that the Senate Standing Orders of the Senate 2015 is authentic, final, relevant and cannot be challenged. He attached a copy of the debates of the Senate on Wednesday, the 24th of June where the Senate President ruled (that) the Senate Standing Order 2015 as authentic Standing Orders of the 8th Senate.”

“Fraudulent amendment”
Funny enough, Mr. Maikasuwa, who conducted the elections of Messrs Saraki and Ekweremadu, claim that he did not refer to any Senate Standing Rules, rather, he said he only performed his duty using “normal procedures for the opening of a new parliament”.

He said, in the police report, “that before the election, he called on the Deputy Clerk to the National Assembly who is also the Clerk to the Senate to read out the guidelines for the election”.

He denied knowledge of the existence or production of an amended Senate Standing Rules 2015, saying he had no business in the daily activities in the Senate.

He told the police Mr. Efeturi was “in better position to know of the 2015 Standing Orders as amended”.

The report says a number of Senators, including Suleiman Hukunyi, Kabiru Marafa, Ahmed Lawan, Abdullahi Gumel, Gbenga Ashafa, Robert Boroffice and Abu Ibrahim, were invited during the investigation.

In their separate statements, they said the seventh Senate did not amend the 2011 Standing Rules and thus, the amendment rules used for inauguration of the eighth assembly was fraudulent since there was no compliance with the requirements for amendment of Senate Rules.

Mr. Lawan, who contested and lost the senate presidency to Mr. Saraki, said, “The procedures for election into the two presiding offices are clearly stipulated in Order 2 (2(i) of the Senate Standing Rules 2011. That contrary to the provision of the above order, the Clerk to the National Assembly introduced and used order 3(3) e (ii) of the purported 2015 Standing Order”.

The report also noted the submissions of some former lawmakers like Ita Enang, who was chairman, Rules and Business. He told the police categorically that the previous Senate did not amend the rules.