The Senate is set for a stormy session on Tuesday (today) as the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions submits its report on the spokesman for the Senate Unity Forum, Senator Kabir Marafa.

The upper chamber will today (Tuesday) take a
decision on the type of disciplinary action that
should be meted out to Marafa over an
interview he granted Sunday PUNCH , on
February 7.
The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, had on
February 16 mandated the committee to
investigate Marafa and report back to the upper
chamber today.
On Monday, there was a division among
senators on how the report on Marafa would be
treated with anti-Saraki members, under the
aegis of the SUF, promising to stand by the
Zamfara State senator and resist any attempt to
suspend him.
But pro-Saraki senators insisted that Marafa
should be punished for tarnishing the reputation
of the Senate by his outburst.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, had in his
letter to Saraki and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, accused
the National Assembly of illegally augmenting
salaries and allowances above the approved
template of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation
and Fiscal Commission.
In the interview with Sunday PUNCH, on
February 7, Marafa was asked to comment on
Obasanjo’s letter.
He said, “That is one aspect in which I agree
with Obasanjo about this budget. Sharing money
should not be the basis of the performance of
legislators. Maybe the less we earn, the better.
I don’t know.”
At the resumption of plenary after a two-week
recess, last Tuesday, the senator representing
the Bauchi-South senatorial district, Issa
Missau, and that of the Edo-South senatorial
district, Matthew Urhoghide, drew the attention
of their colleagues to the publication, which
they described as offensive.
We will stand by him – SUF
Speaking on behalf of his colleagues on
Monday, the Secretary of the SUF, Senator
Suleiman Hunkuyi, vowed that the group would
stand by Marafa.
The group insisted that Marafa had done nothing
wrong by granting the interview and expressing
his views as a senator.
He said, “Marafa had raised an issue about the
defects in the institution which needed to be
addressed. It is about the integrity of the
Senate and the need to do the correct thing no
matter whose ox is gored.
“That is what Marafa stands for and it is very
important. Of course, any member of the SUF
will tell you that the Senate’s Standing Rules
had been butchered.
“The integrity of members was first put to the
test when sections of the Standing Rules were
first circumvented, butchered and some people
emerged through a medium other than the
correct provision of the standing Rules.
“No matter what happens, that singular act will
continue to haunt the chamber for a very long
time.”
When asked whether he would be scared if
Marafa was suspended by the Senate, Hunkuyi
said, “Scared? Suspended for doing what? I
don’t think there is anything to be scared of.
“Marafa’s membership of the senate was not
determined by any senator, so his membership
cannot be determined by any member of the
chamber. It cannot be.”
He has violated Senate’s integrity – Saraki’s
loyalists
But six senators, Messrs Tayo Alasoadura,
(Ondo-Central); Peter Nwaoboshi, (Delta-North);
Rafiu Ibrahim, (Kwara-South); Obinna Ogba,
(Ebonyi- Central); Isa Misau, (Bauchi-Central );
and Sabi Abdullahi (Niger-North), said Marafa
should be punished.
The senators, in a press release jointly signed
by them, alleged that Marafa had abandoned his
statutory work and concentrated on playing
politics.
They alleged that he was seeking relevance by
struggling for newspaper space.
They said, “Our position is that Senator Marafa
has continued to violate the oath of office he
swore to uphold. As a member, he has violated
the integrity of the Senate.
“The Senate should no longer allow one member
to hold it to ransom and behave as if he is
bigger than the institution. There is the need for
the institution of the Senate to be protected.
Marafa is laying a bad precedent and he needs
to be stopped from further maligning this
revered democratic institution.”
At the sitting of the Senate Committee on
Ethics, Public Petitions and Privileges, on
Monday, Urhoghide demanded that a disciplinary
action should be taken against the Zamfara-
Central senator in order to save the image and
integrity of the Senate.
Armed with a copy of the Sunday Punch edition
of February 7, which contained the interview
granted by his colleague who is being
investigated, Urhoghide explained that Marafa
had brought the reputation of senators and the
entire Senate into disrepute.
He alleged that Marafa, in the said interview,
admitted that Obasanjo was correct to have
described senators as corrupt, greedy and highly
insensitive to the plight of Nigerians.
The Chairman of the senate committee, Senator
Samuel Anyanwu, asked the Clerk, Mr. Freedom
Osolo, why the respondent was absent from the
sitting despite the fact that he was duly invited.
In his response, Osolo said he wrote to formally
invite Marafa to the sitting last week but that
the senator replied that he was outside Abuja,
attending a funeral which would take three
days.
He, however, said that subsequent invitations
were through phone calls and text messages
and that Marafa allegedly promised to be
available before the panel on Monday.
He said, “I called him this afternoon to know
whether he would honour the committee’s
invitation and he asked me some questions
which I answered. He (Marafa ) then said he
was not coming and that the committee could
do whatever it likes.”
The committee chairman said, “I got a letter
dated February 17 from Senator Marafa, signed
by his legislative aide, indicating that the
senator was out of town to condole with
Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, who lost his mother.