The Senate on Tuesday suspended plenary in honour of two members of the National Assembly who died recently.
The Senate, which resumed plenary after its two weeks recess, held a minute silence in honour of both lawmakers who were members of the House of Representatives.
The decision to suspend the plenary was carried out in line with the tradition of the National Assembly, following a motion moved by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, and seconded by the Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe.
Moving the motion, the Senate Leader said, “this distinguished chamber and, to our distinguished colleagues, the passing of two members of the National Assembly by the names of Honourable Haruna Maitala, who until his demise represented Bassa/Jos North Federal Constituency of Plateau State, and who we lost on 2nd April 2021, in a ghastly motor accident.
“The second loss we suffered, was that of another Honourable member, Hon. Suleiman Aliyu Lere, representing Lere Federal Constituency from Kaduna State, whom we also lost on 6th April 2021.”
Abdullahi added that “Mr President, Distinguished Colleagues, I rise in accordance with our tradition, to move two motions: one for the suspension on all other items scheduled for consideration on the order paper today; [And] also another motion for this distinguished chamber to observe one-minute silence in honour of the departed, I so move.”
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, while putting the motion to a voice vote which was unanimously supported by Senators, described the demise of the two lawmakers as, “another sad development in the National Assembly.”
Meanwhile, the National Assembly on Tuesday witnessed chaos as Legislative Aides disrupted legislative activities at the parliament, protesting against the non-payment of their salaries, minimum wage and duty tour allowance, among many other grievances.
The Federal Lawmakers who were scheduled to resume today after a 19-day Easter recess was prevented by the aggrieved workers from accessing the chamber, chanting solidarity songs.
Though the lawmakers were able to access the chambers, the proper day-to-day activity could not hold as a result of the Aides protests.
After about 17 minutes of Legislative activity, the Senate Leader moved for plenary to be adjourned to Wednesday, 14th April 2021.
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