There was a mild drama in the Senate on Tuesday, as the Chief Whip, Senator Ali Ndume angrily stormed out of the chamber.
In order to calm the tense situation from escalating, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, suddenly called for an emergency closed session.
Ndume had raised a point of order, citing order 54 of the Senate Rule Book to draw the attention of the Senate President to his handling of affairs in the chambers which were against the rules.
He said: “Mr. President there are some things we do in this chamber that are against the rules. Sir, nobody is too big to learn.” Akpabio hardly allowed Ndume to end his speech before ruling him out of order. That action did not help matters.
Obviously angered by Akpabio’s action, Ndume then stormed out of the chamber and went straight to his office. The Chief Whip shortly after, received a call from a colleague to return to the chamber for an executive session. The executive session was ongoing as of the time of filing this report.
There have been some issues in the Chamber over the manner Akpabio has been handling the Senate’s affairs. Ndume and some other Senators are not happy with that, and their attempt to call the attention of the Senate President to it failed as he insisted he was doing the right thing.