The Senate Standing Rules 2011 as Amended was doctored and reprinted by some returning senators in active connivance with the top management staff of the National Assembly two weeks to the inauguration of the 8th Assembly, NewsScroll can reveal.
According to our source, the senators met and reviewed the old Standing Rules and effected the necessary amendments and passed it to the management of the National Assembly. The latter gave the printing to a contractor who compiled and printed the new Standing Order.
According to him, the conditions given to the contractor included doing the compilation and printing inside the National Assembly.
In addition to this, he was mandated to use the staff of the National Assembly to execute the job. The contractor was mandated to print only 400 copies.
The source said that the reason why the contractor was mandated to print the standing order within the National Assembly premises was to avoid leakage to the public before the day of the inauguration.
“The contractor spent three days inside the National Assembly without going home until the job was completed.
“Even the boys he used to execute the job were not allowed to go home until the job was completed.
“The most unfortunate aspect of the whole thing, however, is that the boys used for the job were poorly remunerated. They were paid N2000 per day for overtime by the contractor”, the source explained.
It would be recalled that the alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Rules was first raised by aggrieved All Progressives Congress (APC) Senators backing Senator Ahmed Lawan for Senate President.
Seeing an opportunity to get at the victorious Saraki group, the Lawan caucus petitioned the police, asking for a thorough investigation into the matter.
In addition to taking the matter to the Police, the Lawan caucus also took the matter to court, praying it to nullify all actions taken, particularly the election of Senators Saraki and Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy respectively, on the basis of the alleged forged Standing Order.
The rule, tagged “Senate Standing Order 2015″, was used by the Clerk of the National Assembly to inaugurate the Senate on June 9, 2015.
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