Speculations are that the emergency plenary would be to attend to a supplementary budget for the purchase of Presidential jets.
The Senate has announced its intention to hold an emergency plenary sitting tomorrow, as against its initial plan to resume on Tuesday, July 2nd, 2024.
This was disclosed by the Spokesperson of the Senate, Senator Yemi Adaramodu (APC, Ekiti South) on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, while speaking to journalists covering the Senate.
According to Adaramodu, the emergency resumption from the recess is aimed at addressing national and constitutional issues. He said: “It is our statutory resumption from the Sallah break. The Senate has the constitutional power to regulate its sessions and we believe that we could gain one more legislative day to deal with national and constitutional issues, hence the bringing forward from the initial July 2.
“We hope to deal with issues concerning our further oversight on the appropriations and clear further the hanging issues of constitutional and electoral concerns and clear outstanding bills and motions, expectedly before our annual recess, later in the year.”
Speculations are that the emergency sitting would be to attend to a supplementary budget for the purchase of presidential jets as the Senate Committee on National Security and Intelligence had earlier pledged its support to the House of Representatives’ call for new aircraft for President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima. This immediately sparked criticism from Nigerians.
In response to the criticisms, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, described the allegations as malicious and clarified that the Senate did not approve the purchase of new presidential jets.
OrderPaper recalls that the Senate on June 11, 2024 adjourned its plenary session and embarked on a 3-week recess to resume on Tuesday, July 2, 2024.
The recess was to enable Senators participate in the 2024 Democracy Day activities which was slated for June 12 as well as to mark their one year in office, having been inaugurated on June 13, 2023.
STAR Check: Nigerians, particularly, constituents of Ekiti South district, can keep tabs on the legislative performance of Sen. Adaramodu throughout the 10th senate here.
