The Senate on Tuesday adjourned plenary as it failed to form a quorum.
Section 54 (1) of Part 1 of Chapter 5 of the Constitution says that a quorum of the Senate shall be one-third of all its members. Given that the Senate has 109 members, one-third would be 37.
However, at Tuesday’s sitting, only about 20 members were present necessitating the adjournment till November 20, following a motion moved by the Minority Whip, Sen. Philip Aduda (PDP-FCT) immediately after the opening prayers were said.
Aduda’s motion was based on Order 10 (3) of the Senate Rules, which replicates the laid down constitutional requirement for quorum.
In the motion, he pointed out that the chamber was empty because the various committees were on oversight duties across the country to ensure the budget is performing, adding, “On that note Mr. President, the Senate may wish to extend the time for oversight functions by another week so that they can resume on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018.”
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu seconded the motion before it was put to vote by the President, Sen. Bukola Saraki who said: “Distinguished colleagues, before we finish today’s order paper I think it is important for us to communicate to our colleagues who are on oversight to finish whatever they have during the week.
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“This is important so that we know we have finished with the area oversight, which clearly has kept a lot of our members out of here.
“But as we all know, some of the findings emanating from the oversight are equally important, hence the need to ensure the exercise is done diligently.”
Majority Leader of the Senate, Sen. Ahmed Lawan, moved thereafter, that consideration of all the items in the Order Paper be stood down till next.
The motion was seconded by Deputy Minority Leader, Emmanuel Bwacha, before it was passed by the lawmakers with a voice vote.
The lawmakers did not consider any item on the order paper before the adjournment.
