Former Edo State governor and Edo North senator, Adams Oshiomhole, has argued that the current Senate Standing Order does not permit Godswill Akpabio to serve as Senate President.
Oshiomhole made the remarks on Tuesday during an interview on Arise Television’s “Morning Show,” where he backed the position earlier expressed by Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire, SAN, concerning the amendment of the Senate Standing Order.
According to Oshiomhole, the debate over the Senate rules is far from over, insisting that the existing provisions raise questions about Akpabio’s eligibility to preside over the upper legislative chamber.
“The current Senate President served a four-year term, lost his re-election bid, served as a minister, and returned this term to become Senate President again,” Oshiomhole said.
He argued that when Akpabio’s previous and current terms are combined, the Senate President still falls short of the minimum eight-year requirement he claimed is necessary under the rules.
“If you add his first term to his current term, he still has not served eight years. If eight years is the minimum requirement, Sen. Akpabio does not qualify to preside because he has not met it,” he stated.
Oshiomhole further maintained that any mistake in Akpabio’s emergence should be corrected, stressing that the inclusion of the word “consecutively” in the amended provision weakens the ranking principle in the Senate.
“If he assumed the role in error, that error must be corrected. Also, the word ‘consecutively’ effectively reduces the Senate President’s term to three years for ranking purposes,” he added.
The senator also criticized what he described as laws that encourage authoritarian tendencies on the African continent.
“These kinds of laws are what breed dictatorship in Africa,” Oshiomhole said.
