Senate president Godswill Akpabio on Thursday rejigged senators delegated by the Senate on Wednesday to meet with a federal government’s team to resolve the concerns raised on the Tax Reform Bills currently being considered for passage by the National Assembly.
Akpabio announced the reshuffling during the plenary on Thursday when the lawmakers were adopting the votes and proceedings of Wednesday’s plenary.
He said the Senate Chief Whip, Mohammed Tahir Monguno has been removed from the committee and replaced with Senator Kaka Shehu Lawan, who represents Borno Central Senatorial District.
The Senate during Wednesday’s plenary presided over by the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, constituted a nine-member panel to meet with a delegation of the federal government chaired by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi.
Barau had named the Senate Minority Leader, Abba Morro, a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as chairman of the senate panel and eight others as members including Monguno.
Other Senators named as members of the committee by Barau include Senator Adamu Ailero (PDP – Kebbi Central), Seriake Dickson (PDP – Bayelsa West), Titus Zam (Benue South), Abdullahi Yahaya (Kebbi), Solomon Adeola (APC, Ogun West), Sani Musa (APC – Niger East) and Adetokunbo Abiru (APC – Lagos East).
But when the senators converged for Thursday’s plenary, the Senate President raised concerns that principal officers should not be part of the meeting because that was not the agreement of the senators at a closed-door session held last week before the Tax Reform Bills passed second reading.
Akpabio said the resolution of the Senate at the closed-door session was that none of the principal officers would be part of the meeting between the lawmakers and the federal government’s delegation for the sake of transparency.
He therefore proposed that Monguno be removed from the list and replaced with Shehu Kaka Lawan and that principal officers should also be removed from the meeting.
Akpabio said Lawan will represent the interest of the North-east during the meeting.
Akpabio said: “Replace Mohammed Tahir Monguno with the name of Senator Kaka Shehu Lawan, to represent the Northeast interest, and then we should delete page 11, including principal officer,” he said.
The Senate President put the request to a vote and the majority of the senators supported it through voice vote.
Akpabio subsequently approved the reshuffling and directed the minority leader who chairs the committee to replace Monguno with Shehu Lawan.
“So please, replace Senator Monguno with Senator Kaka Shehu, and delete the principal officers. Senator Abba Moro, you are still the chairman, and continue your work, and then you’ll revert to the Senate,” Akpabio said.