The two arms of the National Assembly, Senate and House of Representatives, Tuesday adjourned till March 12 due to their inability to form a quorum.
While only eight senators showed up for Tuesday’s plenary in the Senate, 10 attended that of the House of Representatives.
Consequently, both arms have scheduled to resume sitting after the governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.
Of the eight senators in attendance were the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu.
Senate Majority Leader, Ahmed Lawan, APC, Yobe, raised a point of Order that the Senate could not continue the day’s legislative work because the required quorum of one third was not formed.
The Senate requires 37 members to form one third of the 109 members.
According to Senator Lawan, many senators are still held back in their senatorial districts because they are yet to have the results of their election announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
He, therefore, moved that the Senate should adjourn sitting till March 12, even as he expressed hopes that INEC would conduct the governorship and State Assembly election on March 9 as scheduled.
Senate Minority Whip, Philip Aduda, PDP, FCT, seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
But before putting the question, Dr. Bukola Saraki, the Senate President, expressed concerns over the delay by the Senate ad-hoc committee set up to process the bill on the National Minimum Wage in submitting report.
Senate Chief Whip, Sola Adeyeye, who is chairman of the ad-hoc committee, explained that the delay was caused by failure of the committee to sit as members did not turn up.
According to him, efforts to cause the committee to go into electronic deliberation failed too.
On whether the committee could conclude its work when the elections are over, Adeyeye said he had health issues to deal with, stating that he might have to travel out of the country in the near future to attend to his health.
It would be recalled that since the commencement of campaigns for the 2019 elections, the Senate had suffered postponement of sittings thrice owing to lack of quorum and campaign schedules.
In the House of Representatives, plenary started at about 11:15 a.m, with only the deputy speaker, Yusuf Lasun, House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, chairman, Rules and Business Committee, Edward Pwajok, and seven others in attendance.
Immediately after prayers, Yakubu Dogara, the presiding officer, read out a communication from President Buhari stating reasons he declined assent to the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Amendment Bill, 2018.
In the communication, the President informed the House why he declined assent to the bill, stressing that it undermined the powers of the Minister of Petroleum Resources.
After reading the President’s letter, Dogara moved for adjournment.
“We have to adjourn till March 12 to enable our colleagues participate in the governorship and state Assembly elections,” he said.
He also explained that the House could not form a quorum to continue Tuesday’s proceedings.
