Senators insist on overriding Buhari’s veto over electoral act amendment bill
Senators pushing for the override of President Muhammadu Buhari’s veto on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2018 rose from a meeting in Lagos at the weekend dashing hopes of resolving the face off between the Senate and the President on the matter.
In fact, the meeting dismissed reports about the truce said to have been brokered by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) between the executive and the legislature in respect of the planned override of the President’s veto.
It was learnt that the meeting of the pro- Senate group which held in Lagos after the wedding party of the daughter of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote in Lagos at the weekend afforded the lawmakers the opportunity to review the register and it was affirmed that “67 senators have so far signed,” the source revealed.
Three Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) were said to have joined the senators at the Lagos meeting to boost their morale for the override.
It was learnt that the Senate leadership is sure they it has got “very sufficient” numbers to act and get the desired results.
A senator who volunteered information on the distribution of the support for the override pointed out that “those who think they control South-West senators will have a shocker of their lives. At least 10 senators from that zone will vote for the amendment; 15 from South-South; 13 from South-East, 13 from North-Central, 10 from North-East and seven from the North-West.
“That is the zonal classification of those who have signed so far. We will get more from those who are still sitting on the fence. The recent position of Gen. T.Y. Danjuma and the Coalition of Northern Groups are helping to win more sympathisers for the pro-senate group.” he added.
Sources in the legislature confirmed yesterday that a pro-senate register seeking the override of the veto, which is kept by a North East Senator of the APC was said to have swelled to 67 from the initial 63 as at last week.
About 20 Senators are yet to decide on which camp to belong.
The pro Buhari senators are also said to be unrelenting in their push as sources said that they are also lobbying the neutral senators to their side to stop the override.
Credit: The Guardian
