By Festus Fifen

Sequel to the recent developments in the National Assembly between Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and Senator Godswill Akpabio which gained local and international prominence, the President of the Nigeria Senate, Godswill Akpabio has strongly advised individuals who are not well grounded in the rules of the Senate to desist from running uninformed commentaries on the Upper Chamber of the Nigeria National Assembly.

Akpabio made the remarks against the backdrop of the recent decision of the Senate to suspend the Kogi Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Oduaghan for flouting the Senate rules.

The Senate President spoke over the weekend while receiving a delegation of the Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities Youth Leaders Forum which paid him a solidarity visit in Abuja.

The Senate President wondered why people who had no idea of the rules of procedure in parliament were always the ones to run uninformed commentaries on Television on matters they knew nothing about.

According to Akpabio, the Senate action on Senator Natasha Akpoti-Oduaghan was a unanimous decision and wondered why people were not bothered to know why there was not any dissenting voice in the Senate on the matter.

Im his words, “You should try to go and know the fact before you start running commentaries on television. So we will advise members of the public to desist from running commentaries on things that they do not know, misquoting the rules of the senate,”

Responding to an earlier comment by the leader of the delegation, Jonathan Lokpobiri Snr, that the first time Niger Delta was made a Senate President was 46 years ago, Akpabio said the people of Niger Delta would not toy with this position of Senate President no matter the mischief others within the opposition rank and file attempted to do.

Akpabio said “the Senate President of today is not representing himself alone. He is representing a people who are very crucial to the economic life wire of this country.

“So when people gang up and conspire, I hear voices from Adamawa shouting, I hear voices from Kwara State shouting, I hear some young people from the southwest being used for something they don’t know, they don’t know the rules of the Senate, you cant be a herbalist and start quoting the Bible, you won’t know what to quote.

“If you have not studied the Bible or you have nothing to do with Christianity, you cannot claim to know the bible more than the Pope. In the same vein, if you are not an Imam, you cannot begin to quote the Quoran.

“But you see people who are not well informed, sitting down just like they do, like football commentators and then they will say Ronaldo should have come from the left to score and that if you were Messi, you would have kicked from the centre. Then you do commentaries on the Television.

“But things that have to do with the hallowed chamber of the National Assembly, you cannot begin to quote what you have never seen. It is only when you are elected to be a senator or a member of the House of Representatives, after your inauguration, the first thing that will be given to you is the Red Book.

“That Red Book contains the Standing Orders that will maintain discipline and decorum and also show you a step by step approach to lawmaking which you must study and follow. In the House of Representatives, they will give you a Green Book to signify the Green Chamber.

“But when people are not well informed about the procedures and begin to debate about the provisions they don’t know, sometimes it worries me.

“So your concern about the current situation is well understood. We have our internal mechanism of settling issues and this issue, we have settled and we will continue to settle.”

Jonathan Lokpobiri, President of Ijaw Youth Council, who led the delegation had earlier expressed concern about the development at the Senate and assured Akpabio that the people of the Niger Delta are fully behind him.

Lokpobiri also sought the intervention of the Senate President on the looming crisis in Rivers State warning that it could snowball into the entire Niger Delta if not nipped in the bud.

Lokpobiri raised their concerns over the Coastal road project, Maritime University in Oron which is yet to take off and the possibility of extending the Warri – Itakpe rail line to Abuja.

On the Rivers State crisis, Akpabio told the delegation that, he and other senators from the Niger Delta would take up their request and see how they could bring peace to Rivers State particularly, and any other sub national needing similar intervention.

Akpabio said their concerns regarding the Coastal Road project had already been addressed by the President but further assured them that all other concerns which they have raised would be addressed.